BBC ON THIS DAY | 11 | 1965: Rhodesia breaks from UK About This Site | Text Only 1965: Rhodesia breaks from UK The Rhodesian Government, led by Prime Minister Ian Smith, has illegally severed its links with the British Crown. Mr Smith made the Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) after days of tense negotiations with British Prime Minister Harold Wilson. His address to the people of Rhodesia said he had taken the action, "so that dignity and freedom of all may be assured". After the proclamation he explained: "There can be no happiness in a country while the absurd situation continues to exist where people, such as ourselves, who have ruled themselves with an impeccable record for over 40 years, are denied what is freely granted to other countries." British authorities were only prepared to permit independence on the basis of giving the black majority population a fair share of power. Treason and rebellion have been committed Jason Mayo, Zapu National Treasurer Under Mr Smith's system there will be white minority rule, where 220,000 white Rhodesians will enjoy privileges over nearly four million black Rhodesians.

Harold Wilson told a packed and solemn House of Commons the Labour Government would not be sending troops to deal with the crisis. Instead he announced a full-range of sanctions including ceasing all British aid to and preferential treatment for Rhodesia, banning the import of Rhodesian tobacco and recalling the British High Commissioner. Both Rhodesian opposition parties - the Zimbabwe African National Union (Zanu) and the Zimbabwe African People's Union (Zapu) have declared breakaway governments. They have both called upon the British Government to use force to suspend the Smith Government. Zanu has also petitioned the United Nations and the Organisation of African Unity for assistance. Zapu National Treasurer Jason Mayo gave a statement before leaving London - where he has been in exile - to set up his rival government in Lusaka, Zambia. "Treason and rebellion have been committed. The lives particularly of four million unarmed Africans are in jeopardy," he said. The Kenyan Government has offered support to "our African brothers in Southern Rhodesia", but did not refer specifically to Zanu or Zapu. Rhodesian Leaders . Legislative Council of Southern Rhodesia 1903 Front Row: From Left to right, - Sir Thomas Scanlen (Legal Advisor), Col.

Heyman M.L.C., Sir Marshall Clark (Imp. Res. Commissioner), Mr C.H. Tredgold (Attorney General), Sir William H. Milton* (Administrator), Mr. W.H. Haddon M.L.C., Col. Raleigh Grey C.M.G., M.L.C. Second Row. - Dr. Wyllie M.L.C., Mr. J. Robertson (Clerk to Council), Mr. F.W. Montague (Sec for Mines), Mr. J. Meikle M.L.C., Mr. E. Ross Townshend (Secy for Agriculture), Mr. F.J. Newton C.M.G. (Treasurer), Mr. H.H. Castens (Chief Secy), Mr. J.H. Kennedy (Master High Court), Col. W Napier C.M.G., M.L.C. (Click on the picture, and then again, to get a closer view of the members) * William Milton played rugby for England in 1874 & 1875 and, after emigrating, he played a key role in promoting and establishing rugby in South Africa.

He went on to play cricket and appeared thrice for South Africa: in the first ever Test at Port Elizabeth in 1889 against England, then again as captain in Cape Town, and finally in 1892. . Opening of the Legislative Council of Southern Rhodesia, 15th June 1903 (Click on the picture, and then again, to get a closer view of the ceremony) . The Legislative Council of Southern Rhodesia 1912 TOP ROW (left to right): E.W.S. Montagu (Secretary for Mines and Works), George Mitchell (Byo), J.H.Kennedy (Master of the High Court), J. Robertson (Clerk of Councils), F.R. Myburgh (Umtali), F. Eyles (Salisbury), E.Edwards (Council Reporter), Col. Heyman (Byo). SECOND ROW: Col. Raleigh Grey (Salisbury), C.H. Tredgold (Attorney-General), Dr. Eric Nobbs (Director of Agriculture). BOTTOM ROW: Gordon S.D. Forbes (Byo), Col. R. Burns Begg, K.C. (Resident Commissioner), Sir Wm.

Milton (Administrator), Sir Charles Coghlan (Byo), Mr. F.J. Newton (Treasurer). (Click on the picture, and then again, to get a closer view of the members) . Members of the Legislative Council of Southern Rhodesia 1914 Back Row (left to right): (------), J. Robertson Esq. (Clerk of Councils), Capt. Bucknall, Col. Napier,C.M.G., (------), Second Row: J.H. Kennedy (Master of the High Court), -- Begbie, Esq., B.I. Collings Esq. J. Arnold Edmunds, Esq., W. Cripps Esq., George Mitchel Esq., Dr. Eric Nobbs (Director of agriculture), J. Duthie, Esq. (Director of Education), W. Cleveland, Esq., Col. Heyman. Front Row: E.W.S. Montagu (Secretary for Mines and Works), Gordon S.D. Forbes, Esq. D.S.O., C.M.G., F.J. Newton, Esq., C.M.G., C.V.O. (Treasurer), Col. R.

Burns-Begg, K.C. (Resident Commissioner), Sir William Milton, K.C.M.G., K.C.V.O. (late Administrator), Sir Charles Coghlan, Col. Raleigh Grey, C.M.G., C.V.O., C.H. Tredgold, Esq. (Attorney-General). (Click on the picture, and then again, to get a closer view of the members) The Administrator, F.D.P. (later Sir Drummond) Chaplin & Mrs Chaplin in 1915 . Rhodesian and Union Delegates at the conference to consider terms for Rhodesia's admission to the Union of South Africa, April 1922 Back Row:- J.H. Eakin, A.R. Hone, W.M. Leggate, D. Hawksley, Hon. P Duncan, Right Hon. F.S. Malan, G Johnson, L.F. Moore, J.W. Keller Middle Row:- E.C. Baxter, P.D.L. Fynn, Sir Raleigh Grey, Right Hon. Sir Thomas Smartt, R.G. Garvin, Sir Randolf Baker, J. Stewart, Capt. E. Lane Sitting:- J.G.

McDonald, R.D.Gilchrist, H.T. Longden, Sir Drummond Chaplin, Right Hon. General Smuts, Sir Charles Coghlan, Mrs. E.T. Jollie, Sir Bouchier Wrey. Click on the picture, and then again, to get a closer view of the delegates. (From an original kindly donated by a pioneer descendant who wishes to remain anonymous.) The South Africa Act, passed by the British parliament in 1910, made provision for the admission of Rhodesia to the Union at a later date. After the Great War, the British government agreed that Rhodesia could choose by referendum whether to become self-governing or join South Africa as a province. The Colonial Secretary, Winston Churchill, favoured the latter course as did Jan Smuts and for similar reasons. Accordingly a Rhodesian delegation went to Cape Town to discuss the terms of Rhodesia's admission to the Union. General Smuts was very keen that Rhodesia should join the Union not least because it would reduce the influence of the Afrikaner nationalists. Smuts offered Rhodesia a very generous 10 seats in the Union parliament rising to 17 as her population increased and promised significant funds for development.

However, concern about Afrikaner influence proved to be a major factor in fiercely loyal Rhodesians deciding in favour of responsible self-government. In the final vote the Responsible Government cause won nearly 60% of the vote on a 79% turnout. It is interesting to speculate what might have happened if Rhodesia had joined the Union in 1923. Clearly a great South African Dominion had been Rhodes' own dream and how he might have influenced the decision, had he not died at the early age of 49, is a matter for debate in its own right. However in 1948 Prime Minister Field Marshal Smuts lost the South African general election by a very narrow margin to the Afrikaner nationalists led by Dr Malan. In fact Smuts obtained more votes than Malan but fewer seats. The point of interest is that had Rhodesia been in the Union then Smuts, not Malan, would have won fairly easily and apartheid as promoted by the National Party would most likely never have come about. Instead a policy based on merit, more akin to that followed by Rhodesia, would probably have been adopted in South Africa which no doubt, similar to Australia, would then also have encouraged mass white immigration.

Clearly the question of Rhodesia having to declare its own independence (UDI) would never have arisen. . On 1st October 1923, Southern Rhodesia became a self-governing colony with all the powers and functions of responsible government. His Majesty King George V appointed His Excellency Lieut.-Col. Sir John Chancellor as the first Governor. . Sir John Robert Chancellor G.C.M.G., G.C.V.O., D.S.O., R.E. Governor of Southern Rhodesia 1923-1928 . The following is an extract from the speech made by His Excellency at the inauguration ceremony: . " . . . When one remembers the sufferings and hardships endured by the early pioneers, their victories over savage tribes, fighting against overwhelming odds, and their struggles with the untamed forces of nature,; when one remembers the vicissitudes the country has undergone owing to wars, drought and disease, one marvels at what has been achieved by men of British race under the inspiration of that great Englishman and great Empire builder, Cecil Rhodes, I like to think that his spirit is present today, a silent witness of an important stage in the fulfilment of one of his dreams.

The British Empire has been built up of territories acquired by various means - conquest, purchase, exchange. In some cases we have reluctantly been compelled to enter countries to put an end to intolerable conditions, and have found that in the interest of humanity it has been our duty to remain. Sometimes the initiative has been taken by Government, and sometimes, as in the case of Rhodesia, the pioneer work has been done by private enterprise. I venture to say that no territory annexed to the British Empire in the last hundred years has come with a more honourable record than Rhodesia." Sir Charles Coghlan K.C.M.G. LL.D., first Premier of Southern Rhodesia. . Originally, before the Great War, he had sympathy with Rhodesia joining the new Union of South Africa but later he became an ardent campaigner for self government. In 1917 he strenuously resisted the BSAC plan to amalgamate with Northern Rhodesia which he felt would imperil the grant of responsible government which, through his hard work, was achieved in 1923. He was Premier from 1st October 1923 until his death on 28th August 1927.

He was given the rare distinction of being buried in the Matopo Hills near the Founder, Cecil Rhodes; this location being reserved for those who had "deserved well of their country". The hill was referred to by Rhodes as a place where one could get "a View of the World" but the area has long been held sacred. It was known as Malindidzimu, the place of spirits, by the Karanga before they were conquered by the Ndebele around 1840. The Matabele however retained the sacred nature of the area and this was then similarly adopted by the whites when they in turn became the rulers of the land that came to be known as Rhodesia. . (Click on picture for larger image) Southern Rhodesia's First Parliament Under Responsible Government BBACK ROW - R.D.Gilchrist, J.L. Martin, C.E. Gilfillan, G.M. Huggins, J. Murdoch Eaton, J. Cowden, L.K. Robinson, H.R. Barbour, E. Edwards (Hansard), A. Drew (Clerk of Papers), R.W. Hawtin (Hansard) MIDDLE ROW - C.C.D.

Ferris (Assistant Clerk), Lieut.-Col. D.C.D. Muro, Col. C.F.Birney, Lieut.-Col. O.C. du Port, A. R. Thomson, G.F. Elcombe, J.G. Jeary (Clerk), Major W.J. Boggie, Capt. H. Bertin, F.L. Hadfield, Max Danziger, R. A. Fletcher FRONT ROW - Sir Ernest W.S. Montagu, Hon. W.M. Leggate, Hon. H.U. Moffat, Hon. P.D.L. Fynn, Hon. Sir Charles Coghlan (Premier), Hon. L. Cripps (Speaker), Hon. Sir Francis Newton, Major the Hon R.J. Hudson, C. Eickhoff (Deputy Speaker), Mrs. E. Tawse Jollie, J.W. Downie. INSETS - Left, J.P. Rchardson; Right, F.P. Mennell. . The Legislative Assembly in 1929 Front row, left to right: Capt. H. Bertin, H.H. Davies, Maj. the Hon.

R.J.Hudson, The Hon. J.W. Downie, The Hon. H.U. Moffat (Premier), The Hon. L. Cripps (Speaker), The Hon. P.D.L. Fynn, The Hon. W.M. Leggate, The Hon R.A. Fletcher, C. Eiskhoff (Deputy Speaker). Second row: B. Munssen Chief Messenger), R.D. Gilchrist, D. MacGillivray, G. Mitchell, Maj. E.L. Guest, J. Murdoch Eaton, C.C.D. Ferris (Clerk Assistant), R.V. Gorle, V.C. (Sergeant-at-Arms), J.G. Jearey (Clerk of the House), C.S. Jobling, G.R. Milne, M.D. Claxton, J.L. Martin, Capt. R.E. Downes, J. Cowden. Back row: J.H. Malcolm, A.R. Welsh, G.M. Huggins, G. Munro, Miss K.M. Davidson (later Mrs W.D. Gale) (Assistant Libarian), Capt. L.L.

Green, M. Danziger, S.M.L. O'Keeffe, L.J.W. Keller. Insets; left: Col. A.J.Taylor, right: A.R. Thomson . The Rt. Hon. Sir Godfrey Huggins C.H., K.C.M.G., K.G.St.J., F.R.C.S., L.R.C.P., M.P. as Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia. Godfrey Huggins was born in 1883 and qualified as a doctor and surgeon before coming to Rhodesia for what he had intended as a short stay. He became a member of the first Legislative Assembly in 1924. Following a period of uncertainty after the death of Sir Charles Coghlan, and by now Rhodesia's leading surgeon, Godfrey Huggins was elected Prime Minister in 1933. He dominated the Rhodesian political scene for the next 23 years. He was knighted in 1941 and led Southern Rhodesia into the ill-fated Federation with Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953.

He was raised to the peerage as Viscount Malvern of Rhodesia and of Bexley in 1955 shortly before his retirement. He died in 1971. The Colony's Parliament 1935 Back Row (left to right) Mr. J.W. Keller (Raylton), Mr Donald Macintyre (Bulawayo Central), Mr J.H. Malcolm (Umtali South), Photo by Mrs E.M. Kennedy A.I.B.P. Second Row: P.C. Orderly, Mr. A.W.V. Crawley (Marandellas), Major G.H. Walker, D.S.O. (Salisbury South), M. J. Cowden (Bulawayo Central), Mr. Caple (Messenger), Mr R.A. Fletcher (Matopos); Mr. J.L. Martin (Eastern Districts). Mr. F.D. Thompson (Gwelo), P.C. Orderly. Third Row: Mr. R.D. Gilchrist (Selukwe), Mr. C.W. Leppington (Que Que), Mr. R.T. Anderson (Salisbury Central), Mr. J.J. Conway (Hartley), Mr.

D.M. Somerville (Umtali North), Lt.-Col. J.R. Brady D.S.O. (Bulawayo North), Mr. C.C.D. Ferris (Clerk Assistant), Major R.V. Gorle, V.C. (Sergeant-at-Arms), Mr. J. G. Jearey (Clerk of the House), Mr. W.A.E. Winterton (Victoria), Lt.Col.. E.L. Guest (Charter), Major L.A.M. Hastings, M.C. (Lomagundi), Mr. R.C. Tredgold (Inziza). Front Row: Mr. H.H. Davies (Bulawayo South), the Hon. V.A. Lewis, M.C., K.C. (Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs, Salisbury North), The Hon. Sir Percy Fynn (Minister Without Portfolio, Salisbury North), The Hon. J.H. Smit (Minister of Finance and Commerce, Salisbury Central), The Hon. G.M. Huggins, F.R.C.S. (Prime Minister and Minister of Native Affairs, Salisbury District), The Hon. Allan Ross Welsh (Speaker, Bulawayo North), Capt.

the Hon. W.S. Senior, M.C. (Minister of Mines and Public Wortks, Gatooma), Mr. E.W.L. Noaks (Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees, Mazoe), Capt. the Hon. F.E. Harris, D.S.O. (Minister of Agriculture, Inyati), and Sir Hugh Williams, Bart., M.C. (Gwanda), Mr. A.R. Thomson (Wankie) was not present when the photograph was taken. . Mr. R.D. Gilchist (resigned) replaced by Mr. Max Danziger. Mr. J.J. Conway (deceased) replaced by Capt. R.E. Downes. .. The Parliament of Rhodesia in 1939 Photo by Mrs E.M. Kennedy A.I.B.P. . BACK ROW: D. Macintyre, J.P. de Kock, Captain H. Bertin, K.C., T.A. Kimble, L.J.W. Keller, Major L.A.M. Hastings, M.C., F.D. Thompson, P.B. Fletcher, E.P. Vernall, W.H. Eastwood, Major G.H.

Walker, D.S.O., W.A.E. Winterton. MIDDLE ROW: A.E. Davies (Chief Messenger), C.W. Leppington, Captain A.W. Whittington, H.V. Wheeler, J.B. Lister, C.C.D. Ferris (Clerk of the House), Lt.-Col. A.J. Tomlinson (Sergeant-at-Arms), G.E. Wells (Assistant Clerk of the House), E.C.F. Whitehead, Max Danziger, Col. W.H. Ralston, D.S.O., M.C., L.B. Fereday, Col. J.B. Brady, D.S.O., G.E. Pennell (Messenger). FRONT ROW: E.W.L. Noaks (Deputy Speaker), Hon. R.H. Tredgold (Minister of Justice and Defence), Hon. J.H. Smit C.M.G. (Minister of Finance and Commerce), Hon. G.M. Huggins, F.R.C.S. (Prime Minister and Minister of Native Affairs), Hon. A.R. Welsh (Speaker), Hon. Sir P.D.L. Fynn C.M.G.

(formerly Minister of Internal Affairs) Capt. Hon. F.E. Harris D.S.O. (Minister of Agriculture and Lands), Lt.-Col. Hon. E.L. Guest O.B.E. (Minister of Mines and Public Works), H.H. Davies (Minister of Internal Affairs). T.H.W. Beadle was not present. . Members of Parliament and Staff of the Legislative Assembly 1948 Front Row (left to right): Mr R.O. Stockil (Leader of the Opposition); the Hon E.C.F. Whitehead, O.B.E. (Minister of Finance); The Hon P.B. Fletcher (Minister of Agriculture and Lands); the Rt. Hon. Sir Godfrey Huggins P.C., C.H., K.C.M.G., F.R.C.S. (Prime Minister); the Hon Sir Allan Welsh (Speaker); Mr. T.I.F. Wilson (Deputy Speaker and Chairman of Committees); the Hon. T.H.W. Beadle O.B.E., K.C. (Minister of Justice and Internal Affairs); the Hon. R.F. Halsted O.B.E. (Minister of Industry and Development); the Hon. I.J.W.

Keller C.B.E. Second Row: H. Hampton (Chief Messenger); Mr. L.M. Cullinan; Mr. G.H. Hackwill M.C.; Mr. J.R. Dendy Young K.C.; Mr. T. Titley Haworth (Librarian); Mr. C.C.D. Ferris O.B.E. (Clerk of the House); Mr. E. Grant-Dalton (Serjeant-at-Arms); Lt.-Col. G.E. Wells E.D. (Clerk-Assistant); Mr. L.J. Howe-Ely (Committee Clerk); Mr. N. St. Quinton C.B.E.; Mr. R.A. Ballantyne; Mr. J.M. Caldicott; Mr. L. Ruile (Assistant Messenger). Third Row: Mr. N.G. Barrett; the Hon. Humphrey Gibbs; Mr. L.J. Smit; Mr. H.A. Holmes; Mr. G. Munro; Mr. D. Macintyre C.B.E.; the Hon. W.A.E. Winterton (Minister of Native Affairs); Mr. L.M.N. Hodson K.C.; Mr.

A.M.F. Stuart; Mr. P.A. Wise. Back row: Mr. I.D. Smith; Mr. R.S.G. Todd; Mr. B.A. Barker; Mr. J.M. Greenfield K.C.; Mr. D.W. Lardner-Burke. (Click on the picture, and then again, to get a closer view) . . The Northern Rhodesia Legislative Council 1940 This photograph of the Northern Rhodesia Legislative Council is included as it shows the young Roy Welensky, who became Prime Minister of The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland from 1957-1963. . Back Row: Mr. G.E. Thornton, M.B.E. (Commissioner of Income Tax); Sir Leopold Moore, Mr. H.F. Wright (Clerk to the Council)), Mr. C.J. Lewin, M.C. (Director of Agriculture); Major H.K. McKee, M.C.; Capt. R.E. Campbell. Middle Row: Mr. R. Welensky, Mr. T.F. Sandford, C.M.G. M.B.E. (Secretary for Native Affairs); Mr.

T.S. Page, Mr. K.R. Tucker, C.B.E. (Financial Secretary); Capt. A.A. Smith, O.B.E.; Mr. J.F.C. Haslam, M.C. (Director of Medical Services); Mr. H.F. Cartmel Robinson, O.B.E. (Provincial Commissioner). Front Row: Mr. H.W. Wilson (Attorney General), Mr. W.M. Logan, C.M.G., O.B.E. (Chief Secretary); His Excellency the Governor, Sir John Maybin, K.C.M.G.; Lt.-Col. S. Gore-Browne, D.S.O.; and Lt.-Col. A. Stephenson, C.M.G., C.B.E., D.S.O., M.C. . The Hon. Ian Douglas Smith, G.C.L.M., I.D. Prime Minister of Rhodesia 1964-1979 . He led Rhodesia to independence on 11th November 1965. . Rhodesians of all races are proud of their country and their heritage. This pride stems from their achievements, particularly over the last 70 years.

At the turn of this century, the population of Rhodesia was less than 400 000 people, made up mainly of the two main indigenous tribes, namely the Matabele and the Mashona. With the advent of the European and his civilisation, brought about by the establishment of mission stations in the early days, the administration of the British South Africa Company up to 1923, self government from then on and Independence since 1965, peace and prosperity manifested themselves. The effect of this European influence was dramatic, and where stagnation previously reigned, civilised life gradually developed to the stage where today the population of Rhodesia is approaching 6 million people. Modern communications systems link the major centres, greatly facilitating the development and expansion of an already sophisticated economy. Highly developed local government and medical facilities make for the easy administration of the healthy population. Agriculture is the most important industry, and experts have praised some of our farming methods as being amongst the most advanced in the world; we certainly lead many countries when it comes to conservation. We have one of the finest climates in the world, and the beauty of some parts of our country defies description.

We cannot claim any credit for these two factors, but believe they have something to do with Rhodesians being what they are. The interest Rhodesia has generated abroad accounts for the ever-increasing number of tourists who visit our country every year, and last year some 400 000 visitors, a number comparable to the total population of the country less than a century ago, visited us. I do not wish to leave you with the impression that Rhodesia is a Utopia. One of our major objectives is the integration of our African population into the economy and the development of his home-lands for the national good. It is my hope that we can achieve our objectives in the air of peace and tranquility which prevails today. Ian Smith, speaking in 1972 . This extract from Veronica Burleigh's portrait of Rhodesia's Prime Minister has captured very well his solid and determined personality. . The Hon. Clifford Walter Dupont, G.C.L.M., I.D, First President of Rhodesia, 1970-1975. . CW Dupont was born in London in 1905 of Huguenot ancestry.

He read law at Cambridge and practised from 1928-1948. At the start of WW2 he was commissioned into The Royal Artillery. He emigrated to Rhodesia in 1948. In 1958 he was elected as the member for Fort Victoria in the Federal Assembly and in 1962 was elected to the Charter constituency in the Southern Rhodesia Parliament. In 1964 he defeated Sir Roy Welensky in the Salisbury constituency of Arundel. He was appointed Minister of Justice and subsequently became Deputy Prime Minister. In 1965 he was appointed Officer Administering the Government until, following a referendum, Rhodesia became a Republic. He died in 1978. . John J. Wrathall, second President of Rhodesia, 1975-1978 . John Wrathall was born in England and qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1935. He emigrated to Rhodesia in 1936 and was Rhodesia's longest serving Minister of Finance prior to being sworn in as President. He died in office.

Explanation of some post-nominal letters used on this page and elsewhere CBE = Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire CH = Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour CMG = Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George CVO = Commander of the Royal Victorian Order DCL = Doctor of Civil Law - a senior degree awarded by Oxford University DSO = Distinguished Service Order - for gallantry and leadership in the face of the enemy, 2nd only to the VC (Victoria Cross) Esq = Esquire; in the UK it is a title of respect previously accorded to men of higher social rank, but which later became a general courtesy title for any man in a formal context. FRCS = Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons G.C.L.M. = Grand Commander of the Legion of Merit (Rhodesian award) I.D. = Independence Decoration (Rhodesian award) KC = Kings Counsel; presently, in 2014, QC = Queens Counsel; a senior advocate at law in the UK and Dominions.

KCMG = Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George KCVO = Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order KGSt.J = Knight of the Order of Saint John LL.D = Doctor of Laws LRCP = Licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians MBE = Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire MC = Military Cross - follows the DSO - for exemplary gallantry during active operations against the enemy OBE = Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire PC = Privy Counsellor to the King or Queen of Britain, a formal and select body of advisers to the British Sovereign.

Ian Smith: Rhodesian prime minister who attempted to prevent black rule by declaring independence from Britain | The Independent Ian Smith: Rhodesian prime minister who attempted to prevent black rule by declaring independence from Britain Thursday 22 November 2007 00:00 BST Click to follow The Independent Online Ian Douglas Smith, politician and farmer: born Selukwe, Southern Rhodesia 8 April 1919; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Treasury, Southern Rhodesia 1963-64; Prime Minister of Rhodesia 1964-79, Minister without Portfolio 1979; married 1948 Janet Watt (died 1994; one stepson, one stepdaughter, and one son deceased); died Cape Town, South Africa 20 November 2007. When the final history of the decolonisation of Africa is written, Ian Smith will merit little more than a footnote. He will be remembered as a small-minded Canute who tried to resist the tide of black rule sweeping inexorably across the continent.

Had he never existed, the history of the middling-sized, stunningly beautiful country now called Zimbabwe but once known as Southern Rhodesia, and under Smith as plain Rhodesia, might have been much the same. But to dismiss Ian Smith out of hand would be to forget how for some 15 years, his country held international diplomacy and British domestic politics to ransom, and how Smith himself, author of Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) and Prime Minister of the last but one white supremacist regime in southern Africa, was once a household name around the world. Smith's background was quintessentially colonial. His father, Jock Smith, had emigrated from Scotland to Rhodesia in 1898, on the eve of the Boer war, and settled at the small rural town of Selukwe. There he ran a farm and a mine, bred racehorses, chaired the local rugby and cricket clubs. The young Ian, born in 1919, inherited Jock's energy and resilience. He was an undistinguished student, but like his father (and most Rhodesians, for that matter) a passionate sportsman and lover of the outdoor life.

When war came in 1939, nothing was more natural for an adventurous and patriotic young man than to share in the defence of the British Empire. Smith enrolled for training as a pilot, and his war took him from Africa to Persia, the Middle East and Europe first with 237 (Rhodesia) Squadron and then 130 Squadron of the RAF. He was shot down in a Spitfire over Corsica, and for five months fought alongside Italian partisans behind German lines. Decades later, this war service would further complicate attitudes to Smith, now rebel and foe, but who had done more than his bit to save Britain from Hitler. He described himself as an "African of British stock". But in many respects, Rhodesians were more British than the British. The cultural overlaps meant many Britons of a certain generation simply could not understand why "Good Old Smithy" and "Plucky Little Rhodesia" were held in such official disapproval. Smith's first priority on returning home was to finish his degree course at Rhodes University in Grahamstown, South Africa. But politics soon beckoned.

In 1948, he was persuaded to stand for Parliament for the Liberal Party, and in a momentous August that year he bought a farm, won his first election, and gained a wife, his beloved Janet. She would give him three children and an anchor amid the turbulence of the struggle over Rhodesian independence. By then the country was a self-governing colony, but pressure was growing for full nationhood. For eight years, between 1953 and 1961, the chosen solution was the Central African Federation – a loose white-run union of Nyasaland (now Malawi), Northern Rhodesia (today's Zambia), and Southern Rhodesia – conceived as a vehicle to full independence. But by 1960 the Federation was falling apart. In Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia, pressures for secession and black rule were growing. In Britain attitudes were shifting. Harold MacMillan spoke of the "winds of change" blowing through Africa, and Britain's vital ally, the United States, was pressing for decolonisation. Southern Rhodesia's white minority, however, would not comply. The Federation broke up, and in Salisbury a new white nationalist party, the Rhodesian Front, won power.

Smith was its deputy leader and was named Deputy Prime Minister in the new government under Winston Field. But Field was too moderate for the Front. Impatient for an early declaration of independence, his parliamentary party voted him out of power and Smith took over. The "African of British stock" was in power. Six months later, in Britain's general election, Harold Wilson's Labour Party defeated the Conservatives. The stage was set for a showdown between the colonial power committed to black majority rule, and the white settlers who had taken over an African land. Old white Rhodesia, the joke ran, was a "Surrey with the lunatic fringe on top". Whether it was lunatic was a matter of opinion. But suburban Surrey it did resemble in its parochiality, its golf-club outlook on the world, its unquestioning certainty in its own values. The white population never exceeded 120,000, 3 per cent of the total and no more than a decent English provincial town, but they believed they had created God's Own Country. White rule in Southern Rhodesia, at least until the liberation war began in earnest in the late 1960s, was subtly different from its counterpart in South Africa.

The end product might have been the same, but it was underpinned less by brutality than by self-righteous paternalism. Whites referred without a trace of self-consciousness to "our black people". Until the end of his life, Smith would contrast the travails of Nigeria, the Congo and other newly independent countries of the continent with the contented stability of his white-run Rhodesia, home of "the happiest black faces you ever saw". But even before Labour came to power, white Rhodesians suspected Britain would simply impose black rule upon them. That feeling only grew through the months of tortuous negotiations between Smith and Wilson before the break. His own views, as recorded in his 1997 memoir The Great Betrayal, were forthright: "Within Britain itself, we were landed with a socialist government hell-bent on appeasing the cult of Marxist Leninism, at the expense of the old traditional values of the British Empire." But most important "were the breaches of agreements, the double standards, the deception and blackmail with which we were confronted.

To put it crudely," wrote the saloon-bar statesman, "we had had an absolute bellyful." On the morning of 11 November 1965, after a last appeal by phone from Harold Wilson, Smith took the fateful step. The UDI proclamation itself was a parody of the American Declaration of Independence, full of lofty "whereases" and "therefores", but in practice a charter for white rule. Each member of the cabinet approved it and signed it, before Smith made a radio broadcast to the nation, telling Rhodesians they had refused to surrender to "Communists" in Africa and Asia. "We have struck a blow for the preservation of justice, civilisation and Christianity." The initial response of Britain to this long-awaited challenge was sanctions. For all Wilson's initial bluster, and his prediction that UDI would fail in a matter of "weeks not months", it was plain from the outset he would never use force to oust the rebel regime. The sanctions, intended to choke Rhodesia's imports of oil and exports of its vital cash crop tobacco, caused inconvenience. But Rhodesia's shared border with South Africa made the measures ultimately unenforceable. Soon, quiet efforts to reach a compromise began.

First came "talks about talks," followed by a meeting between Smith and Wilson aboard the destroyer HMS Tiger in the Mediterranean, in October 1966. In 1968, the two leaders tried again on HMS Fearless, off Gilbraltar. But there was no bridging the basic disagreement – over Rhodesia's refusal to abandon UDI and its existing constitution and return to the British fold, pending a settlement acceptable to the black majority. The next half dozen years were the apogee of Good Old Smithy's Rhodesia. In Britain, the proprietors and leader writers of Conservative newspapers loved him, and soon a more sympathetic Tory government won power. Sanctions by now were little more than a joke, guerrilla activities were comfortably contained by the Rhodesian security forces, and any domestic white opposition was mostly silenced by the house arrest of the former prime minister Garfield Todd in 1972, and the exile of his daughter Judith. But there was one ominous setback – though it did not seem so at the time. In 1971 Smith struck a deal with the Conservative Foreign Secretary Alec Douglas-Home that would have legalised UDI in return for a new constitution pushing black rule into the remotest of futures.

The agreement however was massively rejected when the African population was consulted by the Pearce Commission. Smith dismissed Pearce's report as an "absolute fraud", but thereafter the "Nibmar" formula – "No Independence Before Majority Rule" – was unassailable. Any hope of securing an independent, internationally recognised white Rhodesia had disappeared. For a while, life went on much as before. But in the mid-1970s two events sealed the fate of the Smith regime. The first was America's new-found concern, after Cuba's forays into Angola, that southern Africa might fall into the Soviet sphere of influence. This brought Smith face-to-face with global geopolitics and the diplomatic might of the United States, wielded by Henry Kissinger. Even more important was the collapse of Portugal's African empire in 1975. Suddenly an independent, black-ruled Mozambique was on Rhodesia's eastern frontier. The guerrillas had their sanctuary. The war was now unwinnable. The last four years of white rule were a series of increasingly desperate manoeuvres by Smith to delay the inevitable. Labour was back in power in London.

South Africa, so long the vital ally but now embarked on its own drive for détente with its black neighbours to the north, began to distance itself from the pariah regime in Salisbury. Variously, Smith sought to involve Abel Muzorewa and Ndabaningi Sithole, Rhodesia's "internal" black leaders, and even Joshua Nkomo, the Matabele leader and most prestigious of the insurgent "external" black politicians, in the search for a solution. After a 1976 conference promoted by Kissinger had failed, Smith played his last card of an "internal" settlement, all the while raging at the betrayal by the South Africans, and of course by the British. Dejected and bitter, he blamed everyone but himself for the blind alley into which he had led Rhodesia. David Owen, Labour's new Foreign Secretary, was an especial object of loathing – "a petty, arrogant little man, trying to fill a job that was too big for him". An internal settlement with Sithole and Muzorewa was signed on 4 March 1978, but was too little, too late.

By now Nkomo and Robert Mugabe, nationalist leader of the majority Shona, had forged the Patriotic Front. The "terrorists" were wreaking havoc, and white emigration was costing the security forces the equivalent of a battalion of fighting men a month. The end was only a matter of time. On 1 June 1979, after 15 years as Prime Minister, Smith was succeeded by Bishop Muzorewa as interim prime minister of a government of national unity. Sanctions were lifted ahead of a planned all-party conference at Lancaster House in London, chaired by the new Tory Foreign Secretary, the worldly and urbane Peter Carrington – for Smith the embodiment of Perfidious Albion. Skilfully, Carrington converted Margaret Thatcher – who instinctively shared Smith's view that Mugabe and Nkomo were terrorists – to the belief they had to be part of any settlement. Thus, even the Tories jettisoned their Rhodesian kith and kin. The Lancaster House agreement was duly signed, ending the guerrilla war and providing for all-party elections, to be held in March. As expected by Smith and feared by the British, the result was a landslide victory for Mugabe.

To his amazement, Smith wrote later in his memoirs, his first meeting with a man he regarded as a hardline Marxist revolutionary revealed Mugabe to be someone who "behaved like a balanced, civilised westerner, the antithesis of the Communist gangster I had expected". For a while there was an uneasy co-existence as the neophyte prime minister occasionally consulted with the crusty leader of the white opposition in Parliament. But all semblance of a truce was destroyed the following year when Mugabe made clear his intention of creating a one-party state. After July 1981, the two never met at length again. Smith remained in politics, head of the Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe, as the Rhodesia Front was renamed. His true role however was as self-appointed Cassandra, for whom the steady decline of his country produced an unbroken refrain of "I told you so." But unlike many whites, demoralised by Mugabe's constant attacks, Smith did not leave the country.

After he left active politics, he divided his time between his 5,000-acre farm in central Zimbabwe and Harare, where he lived in a modest bungalow – close, as it happened, to the Cuban embassy, last outpost of those Communist regimes to which he attributed Zimbabwe's and Africa's ills. In 1994 his wife Janet died, but Ian Smith still remained in the public eye. Three years later, he published his memoirs, and until the end continued to denounce the iniquities of the Mugabe government, its corruption, greed and incompetence, and in particular its plan to take back the white farms – a step, in Smith's view, that would inflict further damage upon the traditional support of Zimbabwe's economy, and thus depress the standard of living of the black people whose interests Mugabe purported to have at heart. In that prediction he was tragically correct. By the end Smith had mellowed somewhat, but at heart he was as stubborn and humourless as ever. He still wore his old Spitfire pilot's tie and blamed his fall on every one but himself.

He still denounced the folly of appeasing totalitarians of whatever creed or colour, and stayed true to his receding vision of the vanished Rhodesian paradise. The clock of course could not go back. Salisbury had long since become Harare, and Cecil Square was renamed in honour of the Organisation of African Unity. By the end of Smith's life, the old enemy Communism was to all intents and purposes no more, and there were more elephants than whites in Zimbabwe. The depradations of Mugabe ensured Smith had a point. You did not have to be an unreconstructed white supremacist to lament the collapse of Zimbabwe, as Mugabe the revolutionary turned into a brutal, lunatic totalitarian, who exacted a terrible price from a country which at independence seemed to have everything: international goodwill, a decent social infrastructure, and relatively advanced industry and agriculture. "We had the highest standard of health and education and housing for our black people of any country in Africa," he would claim. "That was what Rhodesians did, and shouldn't we be given credit for doing that?" But Mugabe's tyranny – as was Smith's own feat in stopping history's clock for 15 years – was just another facet of a continent's tragedy.

Rupert Cornwell Ian Smith | prime minister of Rhodesia | Britannica.com prime minister of Rhodesia Alternative Title: Ian Douglas Smith Ian Smith Joshua Nkomo Ian Smith, in full Ian Douglas Smith (born April 8, 1919, Selukwe , Rhodesia [now Shurugwi, Zimbabwe]—died Nov. 20, 2007, Cape Town , S.Af.), first native-born prime minister of the British colony of Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and ardent advocate of white rule, who in 1965 declared Rhodesia ’s independence and its subsequent withdrawal from the British Commonwealth. Ian Smith Marion Kaplan Smith attended local schools and entered Rhodes University in Grahamstown , S.Af. He interrupted his studies in 1939 to join the Royal Air Force, and, as a fighter pilot in World War II , he was shot down twice. After completing his work at the university, Smith was elected to the Southern Rhodesian Assembly in 1948. He joined the governing Federal Party when the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formed in 1953.

By 1958 Smith had become chief government whip in Parliament, but when the Federalists supported a new constitution allowing greater representation for black Africans in Parliament, Smith founded the Rhodesian Front (1961) and attracted white-supremacist support. Promising independence from Britain with a government based upon the white minority, his party won a surprise victory in the election of 1962. When in April 1964 Smith became prime minister of Southern Rhodesia (the Federation had been dissolved in 1963), his first official act was to authorize the arrest and banishment of four black African nationalists. The disorders that followed were suppressed with police action. When the Commonwealth prime ministers’ conference met in July 1964, Smith refused to discuss a new constitution that would lead to eventual black-majority rule. Further negotiations with Britain proved futile , and on Nov. 11, 1965, Smith unilaterally declared Rhodesia’s independence (referred to as the Unilateral Declaration of Independence , or UDI). Great Britain refused to accept Rhodesian independence, and, at Britain’s request, economic sanctions against Rhodesia were applied by the UN Security Council. Smith then severed all ties with the Commonwealth.

A referendum was held in Rhodesia on June 20, 1969, regarding the adoption of a constitution that would enshrine political power in the hands of the white minority and establish Rhodesia as a republic; Rhodesia’s predominantly white electorate overwhelmingly approved both measures. The constitution was passed by Parliament in November, and on March 2, 1970, Rhodesia declared itself a republic. This newsreel clip discusses a referendum held in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) on June 20, 1969, in … Stock footage courtesy The WPA Film Library Britannica Stories

Question: Who was the prime minister of Rhodesia from 1965-79?
Answer: Ian Smith