Jan Smuts

A complex figure in South African history, Jan Smuts was a soldier, statesman, and philosopher whose ideas shaped the League of Nations and later the United Nations. He grew up on a farm in South Africa.

He only went to school at the age of 12, and by age 16 he was a student in Cambridge. The principal of Christ’s College, Sir Alexander R. Todd (who won a Nobel Prize for Chemistry) had the following to say about Smuts: “In 500 years of the College’s history, of all its members, past and present, three had been truly outstanding: John Milton, Charles Darwin and Jan Smuts.”

His vision of international cooperation and environmental conservation was ahead of its time. He crossed paths with Churchill during the Second Boer War and they became life-long friends. He was Chirchil’s closest confidant and advisor, particularly during the Second World War.