2021 World Rally Championship

The 2021 FIA World Rally Championship was the forty-ninth season of the World Rally Championship, an auto racing competition recognised by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) as the highest class of international rallying. Teams and crews competed in twelve rallies for the World Rally Championships for Drivers, Co-drivers and Manufacturers. Crews were free to compete in cars complying with World Rally Car, Rally Pyramid and Group R regulations; however, only manufacturers competing with World Rally Cars homologated under regulations introduced in 2017 were eligible to score points in the Manufacturers' championship. The championship began in January 2021 with the Rallye Monte-Carlo and concluded in November 2021 with Rally Monza. The series was supported by the World Rally Championship-2 and World Rally Championship-3 categories at every round of the championship and by the Junior World Rally Championship at selected events.

Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia were the defending drivers' and co-drivers' champions, having secured their seventh championship titles at the 2020 Rally Monza. Hyundai were the defending manufacturers' champions and were defending their manufacturers' title for the second consecutive year.

At the conclusion of the championship, Ogier and Ingrassia won their eighth world titles after winning the 2021 Rally Monza. Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin finished second, trailing by twenty-three points. Thierry Neuville and Martijn Wydaeghe were third, a further thirty-one points behind. In the manufacturers' championship, Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT clinched the title, a massive fifty-nine-point lead over the defending manufacturer champion Hyundai Shell Mobis WRT, with M-Sport Ford WRT in third.

## Calendar

The 2021 championship was contested over twelve rounds in Europe and Africa:

The following rounds were included on the original calendar published by WRC Promoter GmbH, but were later cancelled:

### Calendar changes

With the addition of Rally Chile to the calendar in 2019, the FIA opened the tender process for new events to join the championship in 2020. Three events were successful, but the championship was affected by a series of cancellations in 2019 and 2020 that necessitated changes to the 2021 calendar:

- Rally Catalunya returned to the championship. The rally was removed from the 2020 schedule as part of an event-sharing agreement that would see it removed from the calendar for one year, but was guaranteed a spot on the calendar for the next two. The rally returned to running exclusively on tarmac roads for the first time since .

- Rally Chile was due to return after a one-year absence. The rally had been included on the original draft of the 2020 calendar, but was later cancelled in the face of ongoing civil unrest in the country. Organisers of the event negotiated a return to the calendar for the 2021 championship, but it was again cancelled due to continued travel and other restrictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Acropolis Rally replaced the rally after a seven-year absence on the calendar.
- Rally Croatia made its championship debut, replacing Rally Mexico. Croatia thus became the 34th country to host a World Rally Championship round. It was based in Zagreb, and ran on tarmac roads.
- Rally Deutschland was removed from the calendar. The event had planned to run in 2020, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was not included on the 2021 calendar.
- The Rallies of Finland and Portugal also returned to the championship after a one-year absence. The 2020 events were cancelled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

- Rally GB was replaced by the Ypres Rally in Belgium. Rally GB had originally planned to move from Wales to Northern Ireland, but the event was replaced when organisers were unable to come to an agreement with the government of Northern Ireland to support the rally.
- Rally Japan was scheduled to return to the calendar for the first time since , but it was ultimately called off due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The rally was also originally included on the 2020 calendar, but was also cancelled because of the pandemic. Rally Monza was confirmed to hold the season finale for the second year in a row.
- The Safari Rally was run as a World Championship event for the first time since . The event was based in the Kenyan capital Nairobi and featured stages around Lake Naivasha. The event had been planned to make its return to the championship in 2020, but was cancelled in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

- Rally Sweden was included on the first draft of the calendar with its traditional February date, but was cancelled before the start of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Arctic Rally in northern Finland was chosen as a replacement to ensure that a winter rally was included on the calendar.

In light of the disruption caused by the pandemic in 2020 and in anticipation of further delays, the calendar included an additional six reserve rounds that could be included in the event of rallies being cancelled. These events include rallies in Turkey, Argentina and Latvia. The Ypres Rally had also been included on this reserve list before it replaced Rally GB, so as the Acropolis Rally and Rally Monza.

## Entries

Four teams from three manufacturers contested the 2021 World Rally Championship for Manufacturers, enlisting the following crews for each round as detailed. All crews use tyres provided by Pirelli.

The below crews are not entered to score manufacturer points and are entered in World Rally Cars as privateers or under arrangement with the manufacturers.

### In detail

M-Sport Ford WRT only entered two full-time entries in 2021. The first was crewed by Gus Greensmith and Elliott Edmondson, who contested selected rallies for the team in 2019 and 2020. Edmondson was later replaced by Chris Patterson. Stuart Loudon became Greensmith's third co-driver of the season, when Patterson was absent in Sardinia due to personal reasons. Greensmith and Patterson parted away after Rally de Catalunya as Patterson decided to retire from competition. Jonas Andersson is confirmed to co-drive with Greensmith in the season finale. The second car was shared by two crews; one made up of World Rally Championship-2 graduates Adrien Fourmaux and Renaud Jamoul, while the other was led by Teemu Suninen, who was partnered by Mikko Markkula. However, Suninen announced that he quited from the team by mid season. Fourmaux split away with Jamoul during the season. Alexandre Coria became Fourmaux's new co-driver. Esapekka Lappi and Janne Ferm, who drove for M-Sport in 2020, left the team. The two later joined World Rally Championship-2 team Movisport.

Hyundai retained the line-up of Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja. Thierry Neuville also retained with the team, but he ended his ten-year partnership with Nicolas Gilsoul. Martijn Wydaeghe became Neuville's new co-driver. The team's third entry was shared between crews led by Dani Sordo and Craig Breen. Sordo formed a new partnership with new co-driver Borja Rozada after the Monte Carlo Rally as Carlos del Barrio moved to co-drive with Fabrizio Zaldívar in the WRC-3 category. However, their partnership only lasted three rounds, with Cándido Carrera replaced Rozada. Nine-time World Champion Sébastien Loeb left Hyundai to join Bahrain Raid Xtreme team in the 2021 Dakar Rally and Team X44 in the Extreme E electric rally raid series. Tänak is confirmed to miss the season's finale for family reasons. Suninen, who left M-Sport and competed for Hyundai in the WRC-2 category in Spain, replaced the Estonian in Monza.

Hyundai's second team, Hyundai 2C Competition, entered an i20 Coupe WRC for Pierre-Louis Loubet and Vincent Landais at every round of the championship. Loubet and Landais had previously contested three events with the team in 2020. Florian Haut-Labourdette later replaced Landais to co-drive with Loubet since Portugal. However, Loubet's full-season programme was brought to an early end as he suffered a hip injury after being involving in a car accident. Junior World Rally Champion Nil Solans made his top-tier debut in Spain as a replacement to the injured Loubet with Marc Martí. Oliver Solberg and Aaron Johnston made their World Rally Car debut at the Arctic Rally. However, Johnston was replaced by Sebastian Marshall at the weekend after testing positive for COVID-19 pandemic. Solberg announced later in the season that the partnership with Johnston ended. American Rally Association champion Craig Drew took over the seat in Catalunya, before Edmondson cooperated with Solberg in Monza.

Toyota Gazoo Racing WRT was planned to introduce a new car based on the Toyota GR Yaris, an "homologation special", or road-going version of a car specifically designed for competition and with production limited to the minimum number required to meet homologation requirements. However, the team later announced that it had abandoned development the GR Yaris, citing the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the automotive industry and the costs of developing the car when new regulations were due to be introduced in . Tommi Mäkinen stepped down from Toyota's team principal to become the company's motorsport advisor. Former driver Jari-Matti Latvala was named to succeed Mäkinen's role.

Reigning World Drivers' Champion Sébastien Ogier announced that he would retire from full-time competition at the end of the 2020 championship, but his retirement was delayed when he renewed a one-year deal with Toyota. Ogier explained that his decision to stay in the sport was because the shortened 2020 championship was not how he wanted his career to end. The team retained the pairings of Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin and of Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen. Takamoto Katsuta and Daniel Barritt also remained with the team to contest a full-time campaign in a fourth car. Barritt missed several events following back and neck injuries suffered in Estonia. Keaton Williams joined Katsuta as substitute co-driver in Greece before a family emergency forced him to withdraw from in the next two events. Johnston became Katsuta's third co-driver following the departure with Solberg, but soon succeeded by Edmondson in the following round.

## Changes

### Technical regulations

Pirelli has become the championships' sole nominated tyre supplier with the removal of Michelin and Yokohama. Under the terms of the agreement, Pirelli will supply tyres to all entrants of four-wheel drive cars.

### Sporting regulations

The season saw the creation of the World Rally Championship for Teams, a new championship title that existed alongside the World Rally Championships for Drivers, Co-drivers and Manufacturers. A team taking part in the Teams' championship was able to only score points in a rally if a manufacturer competing with the same make of car had been entered into the event. Teams that competed in the Teams' championship were required to take part in a minimum of seven rallies, one of which had to be outside Europe to be eligible for the championship.

As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic meant that only seven of the thirteen events planned for the 2020 championship took place, the World Motorsport Council passed a resolution declaring that for the drivers', co-drivers' and manufacturers' championship titles to be awarded a minimum of six rallies must be held.

Manufacturers were awarded Power Stage bonus points for the first time. The scoring system remains the same as that used by drivers and co-drivers, with five points awarded for the fastest manufacturer car down to one point for the fifth quickest. Only the two fastest drivers from a single manufacturer are eligible to score.

## Season report

### Opening rounds

The 2021 FIA World Rally Championship began in Monaco. The Hyundai crew of Ott Tänak and Martin Järveoja took an early lead, but their lead was wiped out when by a loss of power in hairpins. The Estonian pair's rally was further hampered by two punctures, which meant that they did not have enough rubber on one of their wheels for the car to be considered road legal. Unable to complete the liaison between special stages, Tänak and Järveoja were ruled out for the second consecutive year in Monte-Carlo. The M-Sport crew of Teemu Suninen and Mikko Markkula also retired from the rally when they crashed out on the very first stage of the event. Local heroes Sébastien Ogier and Julien Ingrassia were the favourites for the weekend. Despite a flat tire that lost the lead to their teammates Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin, the reigning world champions set fastest stage time after fastest stage time to regain the top spot and eventually won their eighth Monte Carlo victory, a new record for wins in Monte Carlo. They also became the first crew to win the rally with five different manufacturers. Evans and Martin finished second to complete a Toyota one-two. The Japanese manufacturer's party was further flourished by the dominance at the Power Stage, which saw them build a twenty-two-point lead over the reigning manufacturers' champions Hyundai. The prior year's victor, Thierry Neuville, joined them on the podium with his new co-driver Martijn Wydaeghe, whose first ever podium in the championship.

The Arctic Rally Finland saw the championship first visiting inside the Arctic Circle, where local favourites Kalle Rovanperä and Jonne Halttunen were determined to win their first WRC event. However, their ambition was spoiled by Tänak and Järveoja, who benefited from a greater road position. The former world champions demonstrated brilliant pace throughout the weekend, leading the event from start to finish to win their first rally of the season. Unable to match the speed of Tänak and Järveoja, Rovanperä and Halttunen were threatened by Neuville and Wydaeghe going onto the final day. The battle for the runner-up spot would decide the championship leads. Eventually, the Finnish crew managed to edge the Belgian pair by 2.3 seconds as well as winning the Power Stage. This was enough to ensure the twenty-year-old Rovanperä to become the youngest driver to lead the championship in the forty-nine-year history of the WRC. Reigning world champions Ogier and Ingrassia had a weekend to forget. The French crew went into a snowbank 200 meters from the flying finish on Saturday's final test, which took them twenty minutes to free themselves from. They eventually limped home in twentieth place but did collect one consolation point form the Power Stage.

The third round of the season saw the championship held in Croatia, the thirty-fourth country to host a WRC event. Rovanperä and Halttunen entered the rally as championship leaders, but they crashed out on the very first stage of the rally. This gave Neuville and Wydaeghe a clean road, leading the rally onto Saturday. However, an incorrect tyre choice of hard and soft compound mixture plus brake issues on Saturday's morning loop saw them drop down to third. Ogier and Ingrassia became the new rally leaders, but a puncture meant their lead was limited to single-digits. Ogier and Ingrassia snatched the victory and reclaimed the championship leads. 0.6 second was the winning margin, making the rally the third closest win in history after the 2011 Jordan Rally and the 2007 Rally New Zealand. In addition to a full thirty championship points haul, the French pair also reached their 600th stage win milestone. With two 1–2 finishes in three rounds, Toyota held an early lead in the manufacturers' standings, twenty-seven points cleared of Hyundai. Adrien Fourmaux and Renaud Jamoul made their World Rally Car debut with M-Sport Ford this weekend. They posted several top-five stage times to record a remarkable fifth place.

### Mid-season gravel events

Rally Portugal marked the championship returned to the gravel surface in over 200 days. Hyundai dominated the early stage of the rally, holding 1–2–3 after Friday's morning loop. The situation was looking good for the South Korean manufacturer until Neuville and Wydaeghe damaged their rear-right suspension in a tight left-hander following an over-optimistic pacenote in the afternoon. Benefitting from their main rivals' retirements and a relative late road position, Evans and Martin won the rally, their first of the season. Dani Sordo and new co-driver Borja Rozada completed the event second overall to bring their team valuable points after a disaster weekend for Hyundai, while Ogier and Ingrassia rounded out of the podium. Katsuta drove a clean and consistent rally, ensuring the Japanese driver a career-high fourth place.

The Sardinia island rally witnessed another catastrophic weekend for Hyundai. Despite a dominant performance on Friday, the crews of Tänak and Järveoja and of Sordo and Rozada retired from Saturday due to rear suspension damage. Following Hyundai's double disasters, Ogier and Ingrassia took over the rally, with Evans and Martin covered second. With another 1–2 finish, Toyota's lead over Hyundai extended to massive forty-nine points. Neuville and Wydaeghe were the only hope of Hyundai. The Belgian crew was struggling throughout the event and could only managed to finish third.

The Safari Rally in Kenya, Africa is renowned for impassable, hard to traverse, open, soft, bumpy, rocky and gravel roads. When the World Rally Championship returned to Kenya after nineteen years, nothing changed. Neuville and Wydaeghe retired from the lead on the final day with a suspension-collapsed issue. This meant for the third consecutive rally, a Hyundai retired from the top spot. Japanese driver Takamoto Katsuta became the new rally leader afterwards, leading a WRC event for the first in his career, but he and his co-driver Barritt were soon overhauled by a charging Ogier and Ingrassia, who were once down in seventh overall. The French crew eventually won the eventful rally to wrap up their fourth victory of the season, and held a commanding lead of thirty-four points in the drivers' and co-drivers' championships heading into the second half of the season. Katsuta secured his WRC podium alongside Barritt, with Tänak and Järveoja rounded out of the podium.

Halfway through the season, the championship's next stop was Rally Estonia. Ahead of home crowds, local favourites Tänak and Järveoja were keen to repeat their success one year ago. They initially led the rally, but double punctures on Friday's morning loop put them from heroes to zeroes as they run out of spare wheels. Following Tänak and Järveoja's issue, Rovanperä and Halttunen took the lead. Having fended off the pursuit of Craig Breen and Paul Nagle, they claimed their maiden WRC win. At 20 years and 290 days, Rovanperä became the youngest driver to win a WRC event, breaking the previous record of 22 years and 313 days held by Jari-Matti Latvala. Breen and Nagle achieved their first podium of the season by finishing second, with teammates Neuville and Wydaeghe rounded out of the podium with their fifth third place.

### New and return rallies

The debut of Ypres Rally on the calendar meant Belgium became the thirty-fifth country to host a WRC event. The combination of bridle path and the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit proved to be relentless for competitors. Local experience was the key to success, which was why local heroes Neuville and Wydaeghe came out in front, bagging an emotional home triumph. This was also the first career victory for Wydaeghe. The only crew who can match their blistering pace were their teammates Breen and Nagle. The Irish crew completed the weekend with another second place.

Greece gave the championship a warm welcome as the Acropolis Rally returned to the calendar after eight years. Victory in the event belonged to Rovanperä and Halttunen, who steered out of trouble and bagged their second victory of the season. The result also saw Toyota extend their championship lead to a mighty fifty-seven points. With only three rounds to go, things were looking really promising for their championship bid.

Rally Finland went ahead on the twenty-first birthday of Rovanperä, who was keen to win his home event. He and Halttunen were running in the front field until they hit with a large pile of gravel on Saturday morning. This caused significant damage to their Yaris, which led to their retirement from the day. Katsuta and new co-driver Aaron Johnston also retired from the day when they ran too deep into a quick left-hander and clouted the bank on the right. Neuville and Wydaeghe's slim title hopes were completely shattered when they stopped halfway through the second test of the Patajoki stage following a compression broke the radiator and caused a water leak. Championship leaders Ogier and Ingrassia were struggled for pace all the weekend, and a one-minute time penalty for not fastening crash helmet strap meant they were in a no men's land. Meanwhile, teammates Evans and Martin were out in front and ultimately won the rally as well as the Power Stage. The result saw Evans and Martin slashed the championship gap by a massive twenty points, trailing Ogier and Ingrassia by twenty-four points after the event.

### Closing rounds

Although Neuville and Wydaeghe lost any chance to clinch the world titles coming into the event, they completely dominated the Spain tarmac, winning a total of ten special stages to grab their second victory of the season after overcoming a late starter motor problem. Evans and Martin kept their title hopes alive as they outscored championship leaders Ogier and Ingrassia. The French crew was looking good to achieve a podium finish till an engine stall at Saturday's final test erased their gap over local heros Sordo and Cándido Carrera and eventually got overhauled on Sunday morning. Katsuta and Johnston's hope of a good result was gone at the very first stage when their Yaris understeered into the barrier at the opening stage of Friday.

The championship was down to the wire as the season finale was again held at Monza. Holding a healthy lead in the championship standings, championship leaders Ogier and Ingrassia immediately took the lead. Title rivals Evans and Martin passed Ogier and Ingrassia by the end of the first day, but soon lost it back to the French crew in the following morning loop. The top spot changed hands repeatedly. Eventually, Ogier and Ingrassia came out on top, winning their fifth rally of the season to bag their eighth world titles. Sordo and Carrera rounded out of the podium after teammates Neuville and Wydaeghe spun into traffic barrier on Saturday. Manufacturer-wise, Toyota won a total of nine victories out of twelve in comparison to Hyundai's three, which was enough for the Japanese team to clinch the title.

## Results and standings

### Season summary

### Scoring system

Points were awarded to the top ten classified finishers in each event. In the manufacturers' championship, teams were eligible to nominate three crews to score points, but these points were only awarded to the top two classified finishers representing a manufacturer and driving a 2017-specification World Rally Car. There were also five bonus points awarded to the winners of the Power Stage, four points for second place, three for third, two for fourth and one for fifth. Power Stage points were awarded in the drivers', co-drivers' and manufacturers' championships.

### FIA World Rally Championship for Drivers

The driver who recorded a top-ten finish was taken into account for the championship regardless of the categories.

### FIA World Rally Championship for Co-Drivers

The co-driver who recorded a top-ten finish was taken into account for the championship regardless of the categories.

### FIA World Rally Championship for Manufacturers

Only the best two results of each manufacturer in the respective overall classification and Power Stage at each rally were taken into account for the championship.

49th running of the World Rally Championship

Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on motorsport


Early life of Jan Smuts

Jan Christian Smuts (aka Jan Christiaan Smuts), OM, CH, ED, KC, FRS (24 May 1870–11 September 1950) was a prominent South African and Commonwealth statesman, military leader, and philosopher. He served as a Boer General during the Boer War, a British General during the First World War and was appointed Field Marshal by King George VI during the Second World War. In addition to various cabinet appointments, he served as Prime Minister of the Union of South Africa from 1919 until 1924 and from 1939 until 1948. From 1917 to 1919 he was one of five members of the British War Cabinet, helping to create the Royal Air Force. He played a leading part in the post-war settlements at the end of both world wars, making significant contributions towards the creation of the League of Nations and the United Nations. He did much to redefine the relationship between Britain and the Dominions and Colonies, leading to the formation of the British Commonwealth.

Jan Smuts was born in 1870, the second son of a traditional Boer farming family. By rural tradition, the eldest son would be the only child to receive a full formal education; however, on the death of his elder brother in 1882, 12-year-old Jan was sent to school for the first time. After four years of education he had made exceptional progress, gaining admission to study at Victoria College in Stellenbosch. He graduated in 1891 with first-class honours in Literature and Science. With this strong academic background, he applied for, and won, the Ebden scholarship for overseas study, electing to read law at Christ's College, Cambridge. After further academic success, and the recipient of many prestigious academic awards, he graduated in 1894 with double First-class honours. After graduating, Smuts passed the examinations for the Inns of Court, entering the Middle Temple. In 1895, despite the prospect of a bright future in the United Kingdom, the homesick Smuts returned to South Africa.

## In South Africa

### Childhood

On 24 May 1870, at the Smuts family farm, Bovenplaats, in the district of Malmesbury, Cape Colony, a child was born to Jacobus Smuts and his wife Catharina. This child, their second son in what was to become a family of four sons and two daughters, was christened Jan Christiaan after his maternal grandfather, Jan Christiaan de Vries

The Smuts family were prosperous yeoman farmers, long-established in the area. For four generations, since 1786, they had farmed in the Malmesbury district, settling on the farm Ongegund, of which Bovenplaats was a part, in 1818. This area was part of the so-called Swartland, the chief wheat-growing area of the Cape Colony.

1870 found Bovenplaats under the care of Jacobus Abraham Smuts and his wife Catharina Petronella. Jacobus Smuts lived in much the same manner as his forefathers — a hard-working farmer, a pillar of the Church, and one who took a leading part in the social and political affairs of the neighbourhood. Such was the regard in which he was held that he was later to be elected as the Member for Malmesbury in the Cape Parliament. Smuts's mother, born Catharina Petronella de Vries, was the sister of Boudewijn Homburg de Vries, the predikant of the nearby town of Riebeek West, some three miles (5 km) from Bovenplaats. The de Vries family originated from the area around Worcester, Cape Colony. Catharina accompanied her brother as his housekeeper when he took up his appointment at Riebeek West, eventually meeting and marrying her husband in 1866. She was a woman of considerable education and culture, at least according to the standards of the area, having studied music and French in Cape Town.

When Jan was six years of age the family moved from Bovenplaats to a new farm some thirteen miles (19 km) away. This farm, Klipfontein, was a bequest to Jacobus Smuts, who, keen to have a farm of his own rather than one under the supervision of his father, moved his family there in 1876.

#### Family life

The Smuts family were traditional Afrikaner farmers. As such, questions of property and family affairs were extensively governed by custom. Custom dictated that it was upon the first son that family expectations fell; the family would strive, so far as their means allowed, to provide him with the best possible education with the goal of paving the way for his entry into one of the professions. As for the others, they would be put to work on the farm, while at the same time receiving a rudimentary home education. As the second son this was to be Jan's role. While he remained at the farm, his elder brother, Michiel, was sent to begin his schooling in Riebeek West, destined, like his uncle Boudewyn, for a future as a predikant in the Dutch Reformed Church.

Farmwork combined with lessons from his mother — such was the order of Jan's life for the next few years. During his early childhood, still too young to be given formal responsibilities on the farm, Jan accompanied the Coloured farm labourers as they went about their daily work. At this time the relations between master and servant, between black and white, were certainly not based on social equality; nevertheless, on these Swartland farms there was little of the rigid segregation which was already emerging elsewhere in South Africa and which was later to have such profound consequences. Since 1828 the Cape had enshrined in law the principle of strict legal equality between the races. Unlike the rest of South Africa, all adult males, were entitled to vote and to stand for election to the Colonial legislature, subject only to a property qualification. In these country districts therefore, there existed a certain intimacy between the farm owners and their labourers. At harvest times it was common to find both working together to gather in the crops and it was also commonplace to find the farm's children playing with one another, irrespective of race.

In this relatively liberal environment Jan accompanied the servants in their work, listening to their stories, learning the ways of the countryside, and trying to help as best he could. As his knowledge and confidence increased Jan began to go out into the countryside by himself, exploring the hills and valleys which surrounded him. Later, as an older boy, his chief responsibility was as a herd — first of the pigs and poultry in the farmyard, and later of the cattle out on the veld. The same laws of custom which had preordained Jan's role as a farmer also had their beneficial aspect; Boer farmers customarily allotted their sons a share of the natural increase of the beasts under their care. As time passed Jan gradually built up a respectable holding of livestock.

At home, away from the work of the farm, his education was not neglected. Although restricted to rudimentary home schooling, his mother's own notable education placed him and his siblings at an advantage compared with other children in similar circumstances.

#### Outside influence

The Smuts family lived in an almost exclusively Afrikaner world. Nevertheless, this cultural identity, unlike that of the Boer republics to the north, did not define itself on opposition to Britain or the British. Swartland farmers had been largely insulated from the causes of discontent of earlier years, discontent which eventually culminated in the mass Boer migrations of the Great Trek. As a result, Jacobus Smuts largely unmoved by the Afrikaner nationalism preached by such organisations as the Afrikaner Bond, founded by Rev. SJ du Toit in 1877. After 1884, having come under the leadership of Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr, the Bond became more to the Smuts' taste. Hofmeyr changed the fundamental basis of the organisation, from one preaching Afrikaner separatism to one which combined a pragmatic policy of economic protectionism for Cape farmers and their produce with a call for unity between the English and Dutch-speaking populations and cooperation with the Colonial authorities. As a member of the Cape legislature Jacobus Smuts pledged his support to Hofmeyr and the reformed Bond.

Unlike many parts of South Africa, conflict was an element largely absent from Jan Smuts's early life. Whether conflict between Briton and Boer, or conflict between Black and White — it had been many years since the farmers of the Swartland had had to deal with turmoil on their doorsteps. The absence of conflict, along with its inevitable counterpart, development of prejudice, had its effect upon Smuts.

In later years Smuts was to look upon this time with the uttermost fondness. Of all his childhood experiences it was the time spent out on the veld, whether tending the cattle or out on excursions of his own, which seemed to have the most marked effects on him, developing an attachment which was almost spiritual in nature. As he wrote in 1902, aged 32:

> How well I remember the years I spent tending the cattle on the large farm, roaming over all its far expanse of veld, in which every kloof, every valley, every koppie was endeared to me by the most familiar associations. Month after month I had spent there in lonely occupation — alone with the cattle, myself and God. The veld had grown part of me, not only in the sense that my bones were a part of it, but in that more vital sense which identifies nature with man ... Having no human companion, I felt a spirit of comradeship for the objects around me. In my childish way I communed with these as with my own soul; they became the sharers of my confidence.

In ordinary circumstances Jan Smuts would have, in time, taken over the running of the family farm, spending his life as a farmer as his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather had before him. However this was not to be; events were to conspire to change this predetermined fate.

### Schooldays

In 1882 tragedy struck the Smuts family. Their eldest son, Michiel, suddenly succumbed to typhoid while attending school at Riebeek West. This time of family grief and upheaval had a direct effect upon Jan; now, as the eldest son, the weight of family expectation fell squarely upon his shoulders.

Within weeks Jan was sent from the familiar surroundings of Klipfontein to a boarding house at Riebeek West, to take his brother's place at the school of Mr TC Stoffberg. As had been the case with his brother, his parents had already mapped out his future; like his brother Jan was destined for a future in the Dutch Reformed Church, to be ordained as a predikant at the conclusion of his studies. This vocation, though imposed upon him by his parents, was by no means regarded as an imposition by Jan, growing up as he had in an environment where adherence to the Church and piety of deeds counted for a good deal. This upbringing had turned twelve-year-old Jan into a deeply religious, serious-minded boy. Now, attending school for the first time, he faced a number of obstacles. Foremost amongst these was his rudimentary grasp of English, at a time when it was the main medium of instruction and crucial for any Afrikaner who wished to play a role in wider Cape society. Thanks to his mother's efforts. in this as well as in other subjects, he was better prepared than most children in similar circumstances, but nevertheless he was to start his schooling alongside children many years younger than himself with many years of study separating him from his contemporaries.

Even so, despite these disadvantages, Jan proved himself an outstanding scholar. He surpassed the other children both in terms of innate ability and in terms of dedication to his work. It was not for nothing that his headmaster, Mr Stoffberg, described him as "one of the most brilliant pupils he had ever taught, and the most hard-working boy he had ever met." Within three years Jan had made sufficient progress to have caught up with his age group, children with up to ten years of formal education behind them. He compounded this remarkable achievement when the time came for him to sit the Cape Colony elementary examination in 1885; Jan was placed ninth in the entire colony. The next year he surpassed even this, coming second in the School Higher examination.

During these few years at Riebeek West Jan worked assiduously at his studies — self-evidently, given his achievements. His academic abilities were soon noted by his headmaster, who went out of his way to provide Jan with further curricular reading. Yet this was to prove insufficient to meet what was becoming an almost insatiable thirst for knowledge. Jan borrowed books and yet more books from the headmaster, poring over them at all times rather than engaging in the childish pursuits of the other children, separated from them by his strong work ethic. A few weeks before the School Higher examination this had its consequences — Jan fell ill, an illness exacerbated by his unremitting study. With a strict injunction from his doctor, ordering a complete rest with an absolute prohibition on work and reading, Jan was packed off to bed. Nevertheless, despite the doctor's orders, Jan went to strenuous lengths to evade the ban. One story told of him during this enforced convalescence describes how he used to involve the headmaster's youngest son in his subterfuges, bribing the four-year-old child to bring him books from his father's study. This enjoyed considerable success until the day of an unannounced visit from the headmaster's wife. In his sparsely furnished room there were few possibilities, but Jan made the best job that he could of concealing his by now substantial collection of books. The headmaster's wife upon entering the room found Jan, as expected, in bed. However the boy did not look to be comfortably resting as he ought, in fact he looked positively uncomfortable. She offered to make Jan's bed for him, he declined, insisting that he was perfectly comfortable; she insisted and, being the headmaster's wife, got her way. Embarking upon her deed of kindness she found, to her astonishment, the real reason for Jan's restlessness — underneath his bedclothes he was making a valiant effort to conceal an immense pile of contraband books!

This dedication to reading and study might, in another boy, have been nothing more than a reaction to the impending examinations — but not in Jan's case. What made this particular episode revealing was that the books found under his bedclothes were largely unconnected with his studies. In Riebeek West he developed a lifelong habit, that of reading avidly outside the prescribed curriculum, seeking knowledge for its own sake.

In 1886, at the age of sixteen, Jan embarked on the next stage of his education. Jan applied to, and was accepted by, Victoria College, Stellenbosch — one of the most prominent institutes of higher education in the Cape. In late 1886 he bade farewell to Riebeek West, ready to embark upon a new stage in life.

### Life in Stellenbosch

Mr Stoffberg's school did not take its pupils to the final stage of secondary education. Before Jan could set his schooldays behind him and commence his higher education he would have to sit the Matriculation exam. Jan duly moved from Riebeek West to Stellenbosch, spending early 1886 to late 1886 preparing for this test.

At Riebeeck West Jan had been a hard-working, deeply religious child, with a strongly reserved, almost solitary, nature. This disposition, a legacy of his pious, rural upbringing, is manifest in what is his earliest surviving letter. This letter, written to Professor C Murray, a tutor at Victoria College, was for the most part a run-of-the-mill enquiry into the administrative arrangements for the forthcoming term. Yet in amongst this mundane request for information on such matters as textbooks and school fees Jan found himself confiding his innermost motive forces to this stranger. As he wrote:

> ... such a place [Stellenbosch] where a large puerile element exists, affords fair scope for moral, and what is more important, religious temptation, which, if yielded to, will eclipse alike the expectations of my parents and the intentions of myself ... For of what use will a mind, enlarged and refined in all possible ways, be to me, if my religion be a deserted pilot and morality a wreck?
>
> To avoid temptation and to make the proper use of my precious time, I purposely refuse to enter a public boarding department, as that of Mr de Kock, but shall board privately (most likely at Mr N. Ackermann's) which will, in addition, accord with my private and reserved nature.

In the event, Smuts's resolution to "make the proper use of my precious time" overcame such moral and religious temptations as a small town like Stellenbosch was capable of providing. Religion and his studies – these remained unchallenged as the twin poles of his existence during his matriculation year. In the seclusion of Mr Ackermann's boarding house Jan studied assiduously, attended church with zeal, and ignored the blandishments of the "puerile element".

The Matriculation exam tested candidates on five subjects: Latin, Greek, Mathematics, Science, and English Literature. By exam-time this dedication to his studies had paid off spectacularly; the 1887 Cape lists placed Jan third overall, with the highest marks in the Colony in Greek. In what had been by any standards a year of tremendous success the latter achievement was especially outstanding; a misunderstanding at the start of the year led Jan to believe that he would be exempted from the Greek exam – as a result it was a subject which he largely disregarded. Six days before the exam this potentially devastating oversight was exposed – there was now less than a week in which to catch up with a year's study. Jan immediately shut himself away in his rooms, spending the next days in total seclusion, working from sunrise to sunset in the attempt to master the grammar and vocabulary upon which he was shortly to be tested. By the time of the exam this hard work had paid off. Within a relatively short period Jan had largely memorised his books and had mastered the Greek language to a remarkable degree.

Smuts's determined work ethic played a central role in these successes, yet he was also aided in no small part by his formidable memory. At that age Jan found himself able to memorise large portions of book simply by reading through them, and though this ability gradually diminished as the years passed, it never entirely disappeared. As his son was later to recount:

> [at] Stellenbosch his examiners were, until they learned to understand this prodigy, inclined to accuse the youngster of cribbing, for many of his answers were verbatim from the text-book. At Stellenbosch his facility for memorising was at its peak...

With the hurdle of Matriculation behind him the start of the 1887 term finally saw Smuts admitted as a student of Victoria College and enrolled as an undergraduate of the University of the Cape of Good Hope.

#### Victoria College

Victoria College proved fertile grounds for Smuts's imagination. As his biographer WK Hancock was to write:

> The small teaching body, hardly more that [sic?] half a dozen men, covered a wide curriculum: but the students were also few and sifted for quality. Teachers and students were able in consequence to enjoy close individual contact with each other and ... they were able to work in an atmosphere of leisure.

Smuts thrived in this environment. With these new vistas of knowledge and learning now revealed that he spared no effort in his attempts to master them. His surviving notebooks from this period reveal the range and breadth of his studies: Latin, Greek, German, the Classics, Optical Physics, Inorganic Chemistry and Metallurgy, Organic Chemistry and Agriculture, and Geology - to name but a few. Once again, as had been the case at Riebeek West, this was not merely study for the sake of exams - as ever, Smuts continued to study avidly outside the confines of the curriculum.

Over the next few years at Victoria College, Smuts's religion continued to be of crucial importance. On Sundays he would attend both morning and evening church services, also leading a Bible study class for local Coloured boys, and during the week he was an assiduous attendee at evening prayer meetings. Within Victoria College, one of the strongest friendships he formed was with Professor JI Marais, the head of the Theology faculty.

Smuts's religious observance was unsurprising in one who whose moral outlook was based exclusively upon Biblical teachings and who was destined for a future in the Church. Yet, though religion continued to serve in this central role, his studies at Stellenbosch, with their decidedly scientific bias, led Smuts towards a more critical examination of his faith. From this time onwards Smuts was, by gradual degrees, to start to move away from the uncompromisingly Calvinist outlook within which he had been raised.

If Stellenbosch marked Smuts's intellectual awakening, it also was where he came to mature socially. Here he began to cast off the shyness and reserve which afflicted him, joining the local militia, becoming a regular contributor to the college magazine, and becoming leader of the Victoria College debating society. For the first time, in both verbal and literary debate, Smuts began to grapple with the political and social issues facing South Africa.

Though Smuts did much to cast off his shyness and reserve, he made few hard-and-fast friendships at Stellenbosch. Yet it was here that he met the woman who was to play a central role in his life thereafter. Sybella Margaretha Krige, known to all as Isie, was the daughter of Japie Krige, a prominent local wine and dairy farmer. Six months younger than Smuts, she had shared a similar upbringing with much the same resulting character traits. As their son, also name Jan Christian, was later to write:

> There was nothing particularly romantic about the courtship. They were rather reserved and undemonstrative, and from questioning and teasing our mother, we decided that it was rather an odd and old-fashioned courtship. ... But what the courtship lacked in impetuosity if gained in depth of friendship and understanding. That friendship, unscathed and undiminished, withstood the test of time, and was the basis of a fruitful and exemplary married life.

Isie was an intelligent young woman who, like Smuts, had scored highly in her Matriculation exam. It was thought, as a girl, a future in higher education was largely closed to her. The time spent in her company, whether reading poetry and singing together at the piano, or walking together in the mornings and evenings on the journey to and from Victoria College, did much to break down Smuts's social isolation, enabling him to cast some of those protective prejudices which he had harboured of the "puerile element", that is to say his peers. As he wrote in his diary some years later: "[She], less idealistic than I, but more human, recalled me from my intellectual isolation and made me return to my fellows."

#### Political Awakening

In 1888 Cecil Rhodes paid a visit to Victoria College. As the leader of the college debating society, Smuts was called upon to deliver the welcoming address on behalf of the student body. Rhodes, on the verge of becoming Prime Minister of Cape Colony, was a vocal advocate of Southern African political and economic unity. Now, on the occasion of this visit, Smuts chose to give his address on the theme of Pan-Africanism.

Smuts's engagement with politics was very much a product of his time at Stellenbosch. While his parents' political moderation and rejection of Afrikaner exclusivism had left him largely unencumbered by any innate prejudices, it was his time at Victoria College which saw him develop his own independent political outlook. These views developed in tandem with another of Smuts's fixations, his philosophical pursuit of the embodiment of unity. This intellectual quest was later to develop into his philosophy of Holism, but even at this early undeveloped stage he brought these ideas to bear in shaping his political opinions. So it was that Smuts emerged as an outspoken supporter of South African unity, and, by extension, a supporter of Rhodes.

Two essays written during this time foreshadow Smuts's later views, both political and philosophical. The first of these, entitled South African Customs Union, was written in 1890 in competition for the JB Ebden prize offered by the University of the Cape of Good Hope. This essay, an examination of the economic relations of the colonies and states of South Africa, though 'Highly Commended' by the judges, failed to win the prize. Nevertheless, despite achieving only modest success, it is unsurpassed as a clear and authoritative statement of Smuts's political outlook at this time.

Within the essay Smuts considered the vexed question of the political and economic relations of the colonies and states of South Africa. Though close in terms of geographical proximity, their troubled relations over the preceding quarter century had done much to create an atmosphere of political estrangement. Smuts considered that this estrangement had come about largely as the result of petty jealousies, fostered by politicians interested more in their own parochial concerns than those of South Africa as a whole. And it was to South Africa as a whole that Smuts looked; he did not take the side of one colony or state over the others, but rather treated the region as one single unity. In his own words he summed this up:

> The general maxim in this particular case of South African politics and interests is this: no policy in any Colony or State is sound, which does not recognise, and frame its measures as much as possible in accordance with, the fact that South African is one, that consisting as it does of separate parts, it yet forms one commercial and moral unity.

A call for unity was his emotional response to the question. Coming down to earth, he proposed two concrete policies as steps towards its ultimate realisation - expansion of a pan-South African railway system, fostering greater commercial links and binding the region together, combined with the elimination of all regional tariffs and trade barriers with the formation of a South African customs union.

The writing of this essay was an important formative experience for Smuts. For the first time he had seriously grappled with questions of contemporary politics, and in doing so came to comprehend something of his own political role in resolving them. As he was to write:

> In trying to master the [question of a customs union for South Africa] and its relation to other South African problems, I had to study the relations which have existed between the various territories of South Africa during the past quarter century; and to that study I owe the birth of my political consciousness. As I studied old Blue and other books, it dawned for the first time on me, that I too was a member for better or worse of the great South African community, and that as such I too would be called upon to contribute my drop, or fraction of a drop, of thought or action to the great "river of ocean" which still has to sweep through the Augeas-stable of the South.

Seminal though this moment was, it was just a start. As his biographer, WK Hancock, noted: "All the same, [Smuts] knew that nations are not made by administrative arrangements alone". In The Conditions of Future South African Literature, his next essay of significance, he dealt with the other significant factor in nation-building - the cultural and emotional ties needed to form a united community. Within this essay, not at first sight written on an overtly political topic, Smuts declared that a true South African literature did not and could not exist until a true South African nation had been born. The question then arose - what was hindering this development? Smuts identified the inhibiting factor as the relations between Briton and Boer - particularly the effect of the influx of British emigrants to the gold mines of the Transvaal on the deeply conservative Afrikaner population. The relations between these two groups were fraught; the discover of gold and the rapid industrialisation of the Transvaal had done much to disturb the settled ways of the Boer population. With its vast mineral wealth the Transvaal was rapidly becoming the most significant economic unit of South Africa, but the sudden tide of primarily British immigrants caused a great deal of unrest, with the established population decrying the immorality and degeneracy they perceived in the new mineworkers. These divisions, though strongest in the Transvaal, existed to one degree or another throughout South Africa. Smuts, though sympathising with the concerns of the old population, fearful their established ways and traditions would be swamped in a flood of migration, urged the Afrikaners to embrace the new spirit of dynamism which he saw the new migrants injecting. Likewise he exhorted the new population to integrate with the old, to consolidate the white population both for the sake of a future South African nation but also to secure their survival in the face of the vastly greater Native population.

## A New Direction

In later years Smuts summed up this period:

> The five years I spent at Victoria College, Stellenbosch ... were probably the happiest of my life. I read much and widely, but especially the poets and philosophical writers. I had not yet any defined channel of thinking or feeling. My mind was simply dazzled and attracted by beauty in all its intellectual forms ... My passion for nature made me spend most of my free time in the mountains, along the streams and in the innumerable winding valleys.

In the examinations of 1891, Smuts took a double-First in Literature and Science. He applied for, and won, the Ebden scholarship for overseas study offered by the University of the Cape of Good Hope. On 23 September 1891 he departed the Cape, on board the ship Roslyn Castle, bound for the United Kingdom and a place at Cambridge University.

### Cambridge

Smuts was admitted to Christ's College, where he elected to study Law.

The choice of Law marked the start of a new chapter for Smuts. The preceding years at Stellenbosch had been ones of tremendous intellectual development. From the narrow focus of his upbringing, his outlook had now expanded, awakening within him a consciousness of the breadth of knowledge now open before him. Smuts, though remaining an adherent of the Church, and respectful of the Bible and its teachings, had developed a more questioning and critical outlook during the course of his studies. Whereas at the outset of his university career he was content to follow his parents' wishes and be ordained into the Church, as his time at Victoria College came to an end he found himself more and more unwilling to commit to this path. Though he had not as yet wholly rejected the idea of ordination, he wished for a period of more diversified study before making that decision. So it was that Smuts came to select Law, rather than Divinity or Philosophy - the logical choices for a future Minister of Religion.

During his time at Cambridge Smuts maintained a regular correspondence with his old friend and tutor Professor Marais. Smuts's choice of Law gave rise to a lively discussion between the two, with Marais regretting Smuts's choice, declaring Law to be 'simply classified humbug' and accusing 'those who pore over legal tomes' of having a 'contracted view of life'. In response Smuts published an essay in Christ's College Magazine in defence of Law. Entitled 'Law - A Liberal Study', it attempted to rebut these criticisms, declaring that from Moses onwards lawyers had been the 'great lights and ornaments of the Church' and identifying within Law '...as it develops through the ages of human history, ...the deepest, truest, most permanent thought and social achievement of progressive humanity.' Aside from friendship on this intellectual level, Marais was also able to come to Smuts's rescue at a time of awkward crisis.

Smuts came to Cambridge at the age of twenty-one, three or more years older than the typical university undergraduate. He was isolated from the other men of his year by a different social background, different upbringing, and different attitudes. Smuts's disdain for frivolity and laxity combined with his lack of interest in sports and his decision to take up lodgings outside the college, did much to divide him from the other students. During his first year at Cambridge, Smuts suffered from tremendous homesickness, describing himself as being 'utterly desolate'. Yet during this time Smuts had not found himself without social opportunities - as his biographer WK Hancock wrote:

> ...[H]is fellow ... lodger was a serious and friendly man called John Gregg, who became in later life Archbishop of Armagh. Gregg invited him in the first week or two to come for a walk ... but Smuts never proposed a second walk and Gregg got the impression that he wanted to be left to himself. In the same year at Christ's there was a warm-hearted medical student called Auden, who became in later life Chief Medial Officer at Birmingham and the father of a famous poet; but Smuts never returned the invitations to breakfast which he received once or twice from Auden and their acquaintance never ripened. Early in his first term Smuts received and accepted invitations to join the debating society and to write for the College magazine; but the never followed up the chances of friendship which these activities put in his way.

This could of course have simply been a case of Smuts's diffidence and reserve re-asserting itself in the face of new and unfamiliar surrounding; however Smuts's biographers almost universally ascribe it to the poverty Smuts endured during this first year.

The Ebden scholarship was usually worth £200 per year. However, in 1891, due to a failure of the fund's investments, it was worth only £100. The sale of Smuts's personal livestock holdings on the family farm had enabled him to pay his sea passage and left him with a small residue to bank, yet despite this there remained a substantial gap between his resources and his essential needs as a student. During his first term Christ's College provided him with a small scholarship, but the gap remained. This was a crippling burden for Smuts, yet it was Professor Marais who was to come to his rescue. Smuts, having confided his difficulties to Marais towards the end of 1891 received by immediate return a cheque for £50. Marais urged Smuts to write to him whenever he felt himself in need, in return of which Smuts took out a life insurance policy naming Marais as beneficiary. Should Smuts have died this policy would cover the loans, but while he lived, Smuts's integrity was Marais's only cover.

With Marais's loans combined with the Ebden scholarship, Smuts began to enjoy a degree of financial security. Though far from affluent he was at least able to meet his basic expenses. From his second year onwards Smuts began to enter more into the social arena of the university. He ceased to be lonely, making a number of friends and acquaintances, principally amongst the other colonial students. Though no longer so reclusive as he had been during his first year, he remained extremely serious and devoted to his work; an attitude which served as a barrier separating him from the English undergraduates, though not from the Fellows at Cambridge, with many of whom he struck up friendships.

In respect of his studies, he achieved the unique distinction of sitting both parts of the Law Tripos in the same year, passing both with first-class honours. Over the course of his studies at Cambridge Smuts won many academic awards and accolades, culminating, in 1893, with the award of the prestigious George Long prize in Roman Law and Jurisprudence - a particular honour given that the prize was very rarely awarded as the rigorous academic standard required was very rarely met. This was all combined with extensive extracurricular reading and private research into various topics including poetry, philosophy, botany, and archaeology. As his biographer WK Hancock wrote:

> ... he pursued all his other interests after he had taken the measure of his day's work. He was able to do this because he worked unusually faster than other people and because he found recreation, not in the things that are fritterers of time, but in reading, thinking, writing, exploring.

### Aftermath

Smuts's time at Cambridge had been one of outstanding success; his tutor Professor FW Maitland, himself one of the most eminent legal minds of the time, described Smuts as the most brilliant Law student he had ever taught. With testimonials such as this, in summer 1894 Smuts was able to persuade the Ebden trustees to award him £100 for a further year's study. After a short holiday in Strasbourg, spent studying English conveyancing and German philosophy, Smuts returned to England. For a short time he contemplated moving to the Netherlands to seek a Dutch degree, but by October 1894 he had instead decided to read for the Bar. In December 1894 he passed the Honours Examination of the Inns of Court, passing first in his year. Smuts was called to the Middle Temple and soon received an offer of a fellowship in Law from his old college, Christ's. The possibility of a distinguished legal career in England, whether in practice or in academia, now lay before him. Instead, he rejected both paths; in June 1895, as his Ebden funding came to an end, the homesick Smuts returned to the Cape, determined to make his future there.

## Select bibliography

### Primary sources

- Hancock, WK and van der Poel, J (eds) - Selections from the Smuts Papers, 1886–1950, (7 vols), (1966–73)

### Smuts, General

- Cameron, T - Jan Smuts: An Illustrated Biography, (1994)
- Hancock, WK - Smuts: 1. The Sanguine Years, 1870–1919, (1962)
- Ingham, K - Jan Christian Smuts: The Conscience of a South African, (1986)
- Millin, SG - General Smuts, (2 vols), (1933)
- Smuts, JC - Jan Christian Smuts, (1952)

[Jan Smuts](Category:Jan_Smuts "wikilink") [Early lives by military personnel](Category:Early_lives_by_military_personnel "wikilink") [Early lives by heads of government](Category:Early_lives_by_heads_of_government "wikilink")


William D. Boyce

William Dickson Boyce (June 16, 1858 – June 11, 1929) was an American newspaper man, entrepreneur, magazine publisher, and explorer. He was the founder of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) and the short-lived Lone Scouts of America (LSA). Born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, he acquired a love for the outdoors early in his life. After working as a schoolteacher and a coal miner, Boyce attended Wooster Academy in Ohio before moving to the Midwest and Canada. An astute businessman, Boyce successfully established several newspapers, such as The Commercial in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the Lisbon Clipper in Lisbon, North Dakota. With his first wife, Mary Jane Beacom, he moved to Chicago to pursue his entrepreneurial ambitions. There he established the Mutual Newspaper Publishing Company and the weekly Saturday Blade, which catered to a rural audience and was distributed by thousands of newspaper boys. With his novel employment of newsboys to boost newspaper sales, Boyce's namesake publishing company maintained a circulation of 500,000 copies per week by 1894. Boyce strongly supported worker rights, as demonstrated by his businesses' support of labor unions and his concern for his newsboys' well-being.

By the early years of the 20th century, Boyce had become a multi-millionaire and had taken a step back from his businesses to pursue his interests in civic affairs, devoting more time to traveling and participating in expeditions. In 1909, he embarked on a two-month trip to Europe and a large photographic expedition to Africa with photographer George R. Lawrence and cartoonist John T. McCutcheon. Over the next two decades, Boyce led expeditions to South America, Europe, and North Africa, where he visited the newly discovered tomb of King Tutankhamun.

Boyce learned about Scouting while passing through London during his first expedition to Africa in 1909. According to somewhat fictionalized legend, Boyce had become lost in the dense London fog, but was guided back to his destination by a young boy, who told him that he was merely doing his duty as a Boy Scout. Boyce then read printed material on Scouting, and on his return to the United States, he formed the B.S.A.

From its start, Boyce focused the Scouting program on teaching self-reliance, citizenship, resourcefulness, patriotism, obedience, cheerfulness, courage, and courtesy in order "to make men". After clashing over the Scouting program with the first Chief Scout Executive James E. West, he left the B.S.A. and founded the L.S.A. in January 1915, which catered to rural boys who had limited opportunities to form a troop or a patrol.

In June 1924, five years before Boyce's death, a merger was completed between the B.S.A. and the struggling L.S.A. Boyce received many awards and memorials for his efforts in the U.S. Scouting movement, including the famed "Silver Buffalo Award".

## Personal life and family

Boyce was born on June 16, 1858, in New Texas, Pennsylvania – now Plum Borough —to a Presbyterian farm couple, David and Margaret Jane Bratton Boyce. The Boyces had three children: William Dickson, Mary, and John. During his rural childhood, Boyce acquired a love for the outdoors. He began teaching school at the age of 16 and then worked briefly as a coal miner. He returned to teaching before joining his sister at Wooster Academy in Ohio, which—according to school records—he attended from 1880 to 1881. It is uncertain if he graduated or was expelled.

He then worked as a teacher, lumberjack, secretary, and salesman in the Midwest and Canada before settling in Chicago, where he quickly became known as a persuasive and shrewd salesman and learned business quickly. His books on business, travel, and expeditions often used the phrase "We pushed on." On January 1, 1884, Boyce married Mary Jane Beacom (1865–1959), whom he had known since his Pennsylvania childhood. Boyce called her Betsy, but to many her nickname was "Rattlesnake Jane" because she matched his skill in poker, was an expert shot, and rode horses cross saddle. It had also become obvious that she was more masculine than Boyce himself, although he had never admitted this, it became clear out of his journal.

`They had one son and two daughters: Benjamin Stevens (1884–1928), Happy (1886–1976) and Sydney (1889–1950).`

Boyce's personal activities included hunting, yachting, Odd Fellows, Freemasonry, Shriners, golf, country clubs and the Chicago Hussars—an independent equestrian military organization.

In 1903, Boyce purchased a four-story mansion on 38 acres (15 ha) in Ottawa, Illinois, which became the center of his family and social activities. Thereafter, he showed little interest in Chicago and its social activities; he would only go there on business. Boyce and Mary led increasingly separate lives and eventually divorced, which was reported on the front page of the Chicago Tribune because of the prominence he had attained by that time. The divorce was finalized in a Campbell County, South Dakota court in September 1908; his wife's property settlement was close to \$1 million (USD).

After the divorce was finalized, Boyce courted Virginia Dorcas Lee, a vocalist from Oak Park, Illinois, who was 23 years his junior and the eldest child of Virginia and John Adams Lee, a former Lieutenant Governor of Missouri. Both Virginia's parents and Boyce's son Ben opposed the relationship. In May 1910, after the planned marriage was announced, an infuriated Ben scuffled with his father outside the Blackstone Hotel and Boyce sustained a facial wound. Ben was arrested for disorderly conduct and fined \$5 and court costs. Two days later, Boyce and Virginia married and went to Europe on an extended honeymoon. Almost immediately, there was speculation amongst family members and in newspapers about problems within the marriage. On April 9, 1911, Boyce and Virginia had a daughter, whom they named Virginia. A few months later, in December 1911, Boyce signed an agreement to support and educate their infant daughter. After Boyce's wife filed for divorce in March 1912, she moved to Santa Barbara, California, with their daughter and her parents. Boyce did not contest the divorce and arranged for a \$100,000 settlement. Years later, the elder Virginia married Richard Roberts, a New York banker, and moved with her and Boyce's daughter to Greenwich, Connecticut. The younger Virginia took the surname Roberts. She did not meet her natural father, Boyce, until she was eight years old.

Ben married Miriam Patterson of Omaha, Nebraska, on June 11, 1912. Both Boyce and his first wife attended the ceremony. At this time Boyce's first wife, Mary, exchanged some of her Chicago property for the home in Ottawa, which sparked speculation that she and Boyce might reconcile. The next year they remarried on June 14, 1913, in Ottawa. They then departed on a honeymoon to Alaska, Hawaii, the Philippines, Panama, and Cuba, with their daughter Happy, son Ben, and his wife Miriam.

## Business enterprises

As Boyce traveled, he often started a newspaper wherever he went. His first venture into commercial publishing was compiling a city directory. He also worked briefly for a publisher in Columbus, Ohio, and a newspaper publisher in Kensington, Pennsylvania, part of Philadelphia. He then boarded a train for Chicago and worked as a secretary and salesman for Western magazine. Restless again, he moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, and sold advertisements for a publisher for a short time and then spent a month in Fargo, North Dakota, and Grand Forks, North Dakota. Further north in Canada, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he and local resident James W. Steen co-founded The Commercial in 1881, a newspaper that lasted for 70 years. He sold his share of "The Commercial" to his partner in 1882 and returned to Fargo where he became a reporter. In December 1882, Boyce moved to Lisbon, North Dakota, where he bought the Dakota Clipper.

Beginning in December 1884, Boyce managed reporters and news releases at the "Bureau of Correspondence" at the six-month-long World's Industrial and Cotton Centennial Exposition in New Orleans, Louisiana. Countries from all over the world sent displays. Boyce was responsible for providing news stories on events and displays to over 1,200 newspapers around the country. He returned to North Dakota after the Exposition concluded, but by early 1886 he had moved back to Chicago. He often returned in North Dakota for publishing business deals and deer- and duck-hunting vacations.

In Chicago, he founded the Mutual Newspaper Publishing Company in 1886 which provided advertisements and articles to over 200 newspapers. In 1887, he established the weekly Saturday Blade, an illustrated newspaper aimed at rural audiences and sold by thousands of newsboys—an innovation at the time. By 1892, the Saturday Blade had the largest circulation of any weekly newspaper in the United States. Boyce's detailed reports of his foreign travels provided articles for the "Saturday Blade" and were reprinted in books by atlas/map publisher Rand McNally. The success of the Saturday Blade spawned the W. D. Boyce Publishing Company, which Boyce used to buy or start several newspapers and magazines. In 1892, Boyce bought out the "Chicago Ledger", a fiction weekly publication. In January 1903 he founded the international Boyce's Weekly, which advocated worker's rights. Boyce's prominence as a supporter of labor attracted labor/union leaders such as John Mitchell of the United Mine Workers and Henry Demarest Lloyd as writers and editors for Boyce's Weekly. Eight months later, Boyce's Weekly was consolidated with the Saturday Blade. Boyce also established the selected subject/topical newspapers Farm Business in 1914 and Home Folks Magazine in 1922. Dwindling sales led to the 1925 merger of the Blade and Ledger into the monthly Chicago Blade & Ledger, which was published until 1937. As Boyce's enterprises grew, he insisted on looking after the welfare of about 30,000 delivery boys, who were key to his financial success. Working with them may have helped him gain an understanding of America's youth. Boyce felt that delivering and selling newspapers taught a youth important responsibilities such as being polite, reading human nature, and handling money. Boyce's focused determination was evident in the advice he gave to young men: "There are many obstacles to overcome, but toil, grit and endurance will help you to overcome them all. Help yourself and others will help you." and "whatever trade you have selected; never swerve from that purpose a single moment until it is accomplished".

In 1891, Boyce began working on his own 12-story office building at 30 North Dearborn Street, known as the "Boyce Building", it was designed by architect Henry Ives Cobb. Even 20 years later, this building was recognized as the most expensive building (in terms of dollars per cubic foot) in Chicago. In 1907, Boyce consolidated his business operations into another office building, also known as the Boyce Building, at 500–510 North Dearborn Street. A new four-story office building—designed by the architectural firm of Daniel Burnham—was built on this location in 1912 and expanded during 1913–14 with an additional six stories. This building was later listed on the National Register of Historic Places on February 29, 1996, maintained by the United States Department of the Interior and its National Park Service.

At a time when women had trouble finding work and workers were often oppressed, Boyce felt their rights were important: his businesses employed many women and he supported labor unions. His newspapers often carried stories about the "nobility of labor". His businesses were able to pay out wages and benefits during the Panic of 1893, a time when many businesses were laying off workers and cutting wages. During the Pullman Strike of the Pullman Palace Car Company in 1894, which spread to 20 companies in over half the states, Boyce called Eugene V. Debs, the socialist labor national leader of the American Railway Union, a "great labor leader" and industrialist George Pullman, inventor of the railroad passenger and sleeping car, the man "who caused all the trouble" (the then-current labor and social/political strife of the 1890s). In 1901 when the Boyce Paper Manufacturing Company in Marseilles, Illinois, burned down, he paid the workers immediately and then hired them back as construction workers to rebuild the paper mill so they would not lose income. Yet, he was also protective of his money. In late 1894, when two of his workers were injured by a fallen smokestack and won \$2,000 each in a court judgment, Boyce appealed the case all the way to the Supreme Court of Illinois, and lost. He was also persistent in getting what he wanted; in 1902, he sued the Marseilles Land and Power Company for not supplying enough water power to his mills and won a \$65,300 judgment. By 1903, the Marseilles Land and Power Company fell into receivership and Boyce bought up the company.

Boyce hired his son, Ben, when he was 20 years old, giving him high-level positions in his water and power businesses in and around Marseilles and Ottawa. However, their relationship was often strained by Boyce's high expectations and Ben's carelessness with his funds in activities such as betting on horse races.

During June–August 1906, the government proposed quadrupling the postage rate for second-class mail, which included newspapers, from one cent to four cents per pound. In response, Boyce proposed buying the Post Office Department for \$300 million (USD), claiming that he would reduce postal rates by half, eliminate chronic deficits by applying business methods to postal operations, establish a rural postal express, pay rent to the United States Department of the Treasury for postal buildings, and return profits over seven percent. This offer was rejected by the government, but it did halt their planned second-class postage rate increase.

Boyce was a multi-millionaire by the early 1900s and by 1909 became more interested in civic affairs and less in finance. He also began to travel, often as part of hunting expeditions. He leased hunting lodges at Fort Sisseton, South Dakota, where he had hunted as a young man. He often hosted friends and relatives, especially his son, for activities such as hunting, fishing, dinner, poker, and plentiful liquor. These changes may have been in part caused by the destruction of his Ottawa mansion by fire in early 1908, which was soon rebuilt, followed three months later by the sale of his Marseilles paper mill due to a new law that prevented railroads from negotiating with shippers, and his September 1908 announcement that he and his wife, Mary Jane, were separating.

In 1914 Boyce bought two more newspapers, the "Indianapolis Sun", which he renamed the "Indianapolis Daily Times", and the "Inter Ocean Farmer", which he renamed "The Farming Business". By 1920, the majority of Americans lived in cities instead of rural areas. Lone Scout, "Saturday Blade", and "Chicago Ledger" all focused on rural customers and began to falter. Boyce launched "Home Folks Magazine" in an attempt to regain customers. By June 1925, sales had slipped so much that he merged the latter two titles into the "Blade and Ledger", which caused sales to rise again. This encouraged Boyce to start "Movie Romances", one of the first tabloid magazines about movie star romances.

Boyce's success in the publishing business lay in his ability to organize the administration of a business and delegate details to subordinates. He eventually amassed a fortune of about US\$20 million. Boyce's life paralleled Theodore Roosevelt's in many ways: Both men were products of the Progressive Era, internationally prominent, had concern for children, supported Scouting, were adventurers and outdoorsmen, (modern-day "environmentalists"), and were interested in civic reform. Although Boyce admired and sought to surpass Roosevelt, his only foray into politics was the 1896 Republican primary for a United States representative (congressman) in the U.S. House of Representatives – a bitterly fought campaign which he lost to first-term incumbent George E. Foss. In all likelihood, Boyce met Roosevelt at the Union League Club of Chicago, of which the former had become a member in 1891. His ambivalent attitude towards government was a common one of the general public during the Progressive Era. However, Boyce's Republican credentials and monetary contributions earned him an invitation to the presidential inauguration and ball of newly elected successor to "T.R.", the 27th President, William Howard Taft in March 1909.

## Expeditions

Boyce financed an expedition of the explorer Frederick Schwatka to Alaska in 1896. Schwatka discovered gold near Nome and Boyce reported this success in his newspapers, which led him to finance other Schwatka expeditions as well as those of other adventurers, including a failed expedition to the Yukon River in 1898. Boyce soon began to carry out his own expeditions. When the United States entered the Spanish–American War in 1898, Boyce set sail for Cuban waters aboard the ship Three Friends. The nature of the activities of Boyce and this ship are unknown.

In March 1909, Boyce embarked on a two-month trip to Europe, which included a visit to his daughters, who were in Rome. On returning to America, Boyce organized a photographic expedition to Africa with the innovative aerial photographer George R. Lawrence. Boyce met with safari organizers and outfitters and provisioned his expedition in London and Naples. His son Benjamin and Lawrence's son Raymond were part of the expedition. Cartoonist John T. McCutcheon joined the expedition while they were sailing from Naples to Africa. The group disembarked at Mombasa, Kenya, and was in Nairobi by September. After hiring local porters and guides, the entire expedition totaled about 400 people, about three-fourths of whom were servants. It required 15 train cars to move the people and equipment to the area the expedition was going to explore near Kijabi and Lake Victoria. The expedition was a failure because a telephoto lens was neither brought nor subsequently procured, the hot air balloons were not suitable for the conditions on the plains of East Africa, and the cameras were so large and noisy to move into position that the animals were scared away. The members of the expedition had to resort to buying photographs of big game animals from shops in cities such as Nairobi. The expedition did manage to successfully hunt several species of big game animals.

In December 1910, Boyce led a nine-month, 50,000-mile (80,000 km) expedition to South America that was extensively reported in his newspapers. In late January 1915, Boyce sailed to England because of his concern over World War I. He received permission from the American Legation in Switzerland to travel into Germany and Austria for six weeks to report on the industrial and commercial effects of the war on those countries. He sent extensive reports to his newspapers and returned home around April–May.

In late 1922, Boyce departed on another expedition to Africa, this time for six months. Morocco reminded him of the Dakotas, Kansas, Texas, Florida, and Arizona. In Egypt he visited the tomb of Tutankhamun, which had been discovered just a few months earlier. His expedition then went to Luxor and sailed up the Nile River to Edfu, where the houses had no roofs and while he was there it rained and hailed for the first time in decades. Boyce stated that between his two expeditions to Africa, he had shot at least one of every game animal.

## Scouting

As Boyce's interest in philanthropy grew, he turned to his childhood experiences in the outdoors as a resource, but could not find a way to channel his charitable ideas and dreams until a fateful stop to England while en route to what became the failed photographic expedition to Africa. Events in London on the way to and from this expedition would lead to the founding of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), one of many civic and professional organizations formed during the Progressive Era to fill the void of citizens who had become distended from their rural roots. Many youth organizations such as the Woodcraft Indians and Sons of Daniel Boone formed in America in the early 1900s focusing on outdoor character-building activities. The writings and adventures of Theodore Roosevelt contributed to these movements, with their outdoor, nature, and pioneer themes. By the time of his 1922 expedition to Africa, Boyce was so well respected in Scouting that French Boy Scouts in Algeria saluted him and offered to escort him along a trail when they found out he was the founder of BSA and LSA in America.

### Unknown Scout legend

According to legend, Boyce was lost on a foggy street in London in 1909 when an unknown Scout came to his aid, guiding him back to his destination. The boy then refused Boyce's tip, explaining that he was merely doing his duty as a Boy Scout. Boyce was so impressed by the boy’s actions that it inspired him to bring Scouting to America. Soon thereafter, Boyce met with Robert Baden-Powell, who was the head of the Boy Scout Association at that time. Boyce returned to America, and, four months later, founded the Boy Scouts of America on February 8, 1910. He intended to base the program around American Indian lore. This version of the legend has been printed in numerous BSA handbooks and magazines. There are several variations of it, including ones that claim Boyce knew about Scouting before this encounter and that the Unknown Scout took him to Scout headquarters.

In actuality, Boyce stopped in London en route to a safari in British East Africa. It is true that an unknown Scout helped him and refused a tip. But this Scout only helped him cross a street; he did not take him to the Scout headquarters and Boyce never met Baden-Powell. Upon Boyce's request, the unknown Scout did give him the address of the Scout headquarters, where Boyce went and picked up a copy of Scouting For Boys and other printed material on Scouting. He read this while on safari and was so impressed that instead of making his return to America an around-the-world trip via San Francisco, he returned to the Scout headquarters in London. He volunteered to organize Scouting in America and was told that he could use their manual. While Boyce's original account does not mention fog, a 1928 account says there was fog. Climatologists report no fog on that day in London.

### Boy Scouts of America

The Boy Scouts of America was incorporated on February 8, 1910, but it struggled from shortages of cash and leadership in the beginning. Boyce personally donated \$1,000 a month to keep the organization running on the condition that boys of all races and creeds be included. He was not interested in directing the organization, and turned over the running of the organization to Edgar M. Robinson of the YMCA, who proceeded to recruit the permanent executive board of the BSA. The much-needed leadership and management arrived when the Sons of Daniel Boone and Woodcraft Indians merged with the BSA.

Boyce felt that Scouting's emphasis on outdoor activity was crucial in producing the type of leaders that America needed because youth reared in cities had too much done for them, whereas those from the country had to learn to do things for themselves. Scouting was focused on teaching self-reliance, citizenship, resourcefulness, patriotism, obedience, cheerfulness, courage, and courtesy in order "to make men".

### Lone Scouts of America

Boyce clashed with James E. West, the BSA's Chief Scout Executive, over a program for boys who lived too far from town to join a troop. Boyce offered to publish a magazine for the BSA, as long as it was published in Chicago. The National Executive Board of the BSA turned this offer down and shortly thereafter Boyce ceased being active in administrative activities of the BSA, though he remained a staunch supporter of the program. As a result of this and his desire to serve boys who had limited opportunities as he himself did when he was young, Boyce started a new Scouting-related venture: the Lone Scouts of America (LSA) on January 9, 1915. Reliance on Native American themes gave LSA a distinct Native American flavor: Lone Scouts could form small groups known as "tribes", the tribe's treasurer was known as the "wampum-bearer", and LSA taught boys to respect the environment. Boyce's annual contribution to the LSA grew to \$100,000. In both the BSA and the LSA, Boyce was a manager and had little direct contact with the Boy Scouts. Upon his return from reporting on World War I, Boyce immediately began expanding the LSA by starting Lone Scout magazine and hiring Frank Allan Morgan, a noted Chicago Scoutmaster, to lead the LSA. By November 1915, the LSA had over 30,000 members. Warren conferred upon Boyce the title Chief Totem. Youths could join the LSA simply by mailing in some coupons and five cents. By 1916, the BSA and the LSA were in direct competition for members. In the summer of 1917, during his annual Dakota hunt, the Gros Ventres Indian tribe made Boyce an honorary chief with the name "Big Cloud" during a three-day ceremony. With America at war, Boyce agreed to the creation of a Lone Scout uniform in late 1917. Though he had a uniform made for himself, he stipulated that no Lone Scout was required to purchase one.

Boyce felt that Lone Scout was the best magazine he had ever done. Lone Scout was so popular that it could not handle all the material that was submitted, so many local and regional Tribe Papers were started. By 1922, Boyce's newspaper business was suffering and Lone Scout was losing money—it switched from a weekly to a monthly. Boyce's racial prejudice was revealed when the racial tensions in Chicago increased in the 1920s. The LSA issued a formal proclamation in late 1920 that it would only accept whites and in 1922 changed the masthead of Lone Scout from "A Real Boys' Magazine" to "The White Boys Magazine".

The fortunes of the LSA had begun to decline by 1920 when Boyce hired the first professional editor for Lone Scout, George N. Madison. Madison discovered that the LSA's membership roster was wildly inaccurate: it was full of duplications and inactive members. The reported 490,000 Lone Scouts in 1922 was a vastly inflated number. Boyce finally accepted West's annual offer to merge with the BSA in April 1924, with the merger formalized on June 16, 1924. Some Lone Scouts did not transfer to the BSA, but the BSA continued Lone Scouting as a separate division for another decade, gradually losing its unique programs. Present day Lone Scouts use the standard Cub Scouting and Boy Scouting programs and activities, but are not part of a pack or troop on a regular basis because of factors such as distance, weather, time, disability or other difficulties.

## Legacy

Benjamin Boyce died in 1928 of a heart embolism. His father did not arrive home until after his son's death. Boyce was so saddened over his son's death that his own health suffered. One of Boyce's last efforts was to publish his son's letters from his South Seas expeditions: Dear Dad Letters from New Guinea. Boyce died from bronchial pneumonia on June 11, 1929, in Chicago and was buried in his adopted hometown of Ottawa, Illinois, on June 13, 1929, in the Ottawa Avenue Cemetery, with West delivering the eulogy. Boy Scouts maintained an honor guard with an American flag in a heavy rainstorm in two-hour shifts at his Ottawa home and 32 Boy Scouts were chosen as honorary pallbearers. BSA officials sent his widow a telegram that said the entire American nation owed him a debt of gratitude. A statue that commemorates his contribution to the Boy Scouts of America was placed near his grave on June 21, 1941, which West dedicated.

Boyce was recognized with the Silver Buffalo Award in 1926, the first year it was awarded, for his efforts in starting the BSA. He was the third recipient, after Baden-Powell and the Unknown Scout. During the BSA's 50th anniversary in 1960, 15,000 Scouts and several of Boyce's descendants gathered in Ottawa for a Boyce Memorial weekend. Illinois governor William Stratton delivered the key address and Bridge Street was renamed Boyce Memorial Drive. In 1985, about 2,500 Scouts attended a 75th anniversary pilgrimage in Ottawa, attended by his last surviving child, Virginia, and the Union League of Chicago named Boyce its first Hall of Fame member. Boyce had been a member from 1891 until he died. On December 6, 1997, a Scouting museum opened in Ottawa. The W. D. Boyce Council of the BSA is named in his honor. A Pennsylvania State Historical Marker located on Boyce Campus of Community College of Allegheny County in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, recognizes his achievements to Scouting. Not far from the marker is a county park, Boyce Park, that was named for him. A medallion of Boyce is near the White House as part of The Extra Mile – Points of Light Volunteer Pathway. In 2005, the BSA introduced the William D. Boyce New Unit Organization Award, presented to the organizer of any new Scouting unit.

The Extra Mile National Monument in Washington, DC selected Boyce as one of its 37 honorees. The Extra Mile pays homage to Americans like Boyce who set their own self-interest aside to help others and successfully brought positive social change to the United States.

## Works

- , also in four volumes:
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## See also

- Diana Oughton – Boyce's great-granddaughter
- World's Columbian Exposition

## General references

BSA founder and businessman (1858–1929)

People from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania