998:
347:
Smith approached his father Ian. Eventually, a meeting was arranged. Ian Smith went to Robert Mugabe's house, on the night of 3/4 March 1980, accompanied only by
Kucherera. The meeting lasted several hours and was surprisingly friendly. The matter was settled – Ian Smith accepted the verdict of the election while Mugabe agreed to continued white participation in the government and administration.
761:
174:. At the time Watt met Smith, she was struggling to support herself and two young children on a modest teacher's salary. Ian Smith adopted Watt's two children, Robert and Jean, from her earlier marriage and brought them up, as his own, with Alec. Alec's relations with his mother were always more difficult than those he had with his father.
378:
The family assigned the Smiths' eldest daughter, Inger, to break the news to his father. The latter had suffered a fall the previous year and had been obliged to live with his widowed stepdaughter, Jean Tholet, in Cape Town. Ian Smith was reported to have been devastated by the news and not to have
346:
MRA members sought to prevent a renewal of the war and determined that the only way to do this was to broker a face-to-face meeting between Robert Mugabe (leader of ZANU-PF) and Ian Smith. MRA member Joram
Kucherera (a senior civil servant) used contacts inside ZANU-PF to approach Mugabe while Alec
301:
Smith later became his father's business partner. In this capacity, he assisted in the editing of his father's memoirs and assumed the management of the family's agricultural interests, including the estate at
Shurugwi. In 1984, he wrote a semi-autobiographical account of the struggle for majority
338:
The
Christian Moral Rearmament (MRA) group became active in trying to bring the conflict to an end. MRA seeks to secure social reform through personal reform and, to this end, promotes relationships between people on different sides in conflict situations. Smith was a prominent member of MRA. The
273:, in June 1979, but his parents, despite being invited, were denied entry to attend the ceremony by the Norwegian government. Ian Smith later related considerable bitterness over the refusal of the international community to recognise Rhodesia, and described the
40:
386:"... a pale, slow-walking, slow-talking man with watery eyes and a gentle sense of humour. There was nothing overtly animated about him. He was a will- o'-the-wisp: you never knew quite where he'd come from or where he was going." Rebecca de Saintonge,
293:
During the 1980s and early-1990s, Smith held a number of jobs including, from 1991 to 1996, managing director of a professional football team, the Black Aces. Although not an ordained priest, he became a reserve chaplain in the new
362:
In
December 2005, Smith travelled to Norway with his wife Elisabeth in order to join her relatives for Christmas. On 19 January 2006, the couple started the journey back to Zimbabwe via London. Whilst in the transit lounge at
193:. On his own for the first time, he became increasingly alienated from his background and neglected his studies, falling into drug and alcohol abuse. Smith first came to public attention at this time by applying for a
289:
who considered him a traitor, and more than a few Black
Zimbabweans who refused to accept him due to his family. However, he and Elisabeth settled into an otherwise mundane family life, reconciling with his father.
169:
whilst taking off from an airfield in Egypt. Watt was a South
African school teacher who had previously been married to Piet Duvenage, a South African who had died as the result of a sporting accident while playing
789:
350:
Alec Smith took no further role in politics, although he remained active in community issues through the development of sport. It is believed that he declined an invitation to participate in the
371:
and died almost instantly. He had previously been in good health. His body was later returned to Norway for cremation whilst a memorial service was held at the
Anglican cathedral in
334:"The war was both bloody and brutal and brought out the very worst in the opposing combatants on all three sides," Mike Subritzky (former NZ Army ceasefire monitor in Rhodesia, 1980)
952:
785:
343:
won the 1980 election outright, but elements in the white ruling class were plotting a military coup (Operation Quartz) to prevent it from taking control of the government.
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His father Ian Smith had married Janet Watt in late-1948, after returning from war service with a facial disfigurement resulting from crashing his
925:
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234:, stating that God had freed him from his past debauchery and helped him see the injustice of racial discrimination. He aligned himself with the
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was escalating and many White soldiers were recalled to active duty. Smith was called up, but declined to serve and relocated overseas to
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since 1970. The elder Smith seemed to accept his son's decision and the two remained in regular contact via letter and telephone.
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descended into an increasingly violent civil war between the white minority government and the two black nationalist armies, the
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1037:
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He was expelled from the university at the end of his first year in 1971. Whilst returning from a subsequent holiday in
866:
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20:
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by the South
African authorities. He was convicted of drug trafficking, fined and given a suspended prison sentence.
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while declaring that he did not agree with his father's political views and still considered himself a loyal
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Smith finally returned to
Zimbabwe between December 1979 and March 1980. He remained ostracised by some
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181:. The younger Smith later suggested that this had caused his family life to suffer. He attended
258:. His half-brother Robert, similarly alienated from Rhodesian politics, had been living in the
471:
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239:
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111:
71:
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223:, Smith held a number of odd jobs. He also served without distinction as a conscript in the
194:
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750:
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154:), a small mining and farming town with a population in the 1950s of around 8,500 (8,000
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group, held public meetings promoting majority rule, and befriended a number of
39:
382:
Alec Smith was described by someone who knew him later in his life as follows:
265:
Whilst living in London, Smith met Elisabeth Knudsen, an exchange student from
177:
In April 1964, one month shy of his fifteenth birthday, Smith's father became
760:
660:
571:
139:
298:. Alec and Elisabeth Smith had three children – two daughters and one son.
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Smith grew up on the 21,500-acre (87 km) family farm in Selukwe (now
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67:
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212:, Smith was found to be in possession of 200 grams (7 oz) of
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for Alec by the professional writer Rebecca de Saintonge.
953:
The Great Betrayal: The Memoirs of Ian Douglas Smith
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880:
849:
768:
698:
553:
Operation Agila, "The British Empire's Last Sunset"
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78:
49:
30:
467:Anatomy of a Rebel: Smith of Rhodesia: a Biography
379:recovered from it either mentally or physically.
603:Alec Smith's role in securing transition in 1980
645:
138:chaplain and son of Rhodesian Prime Minister
8:
470:. Salisbury: Graham Publishing. p. 65.
134:; 25 May 1949 – 19 January 2006) was a
185:, and in 1970, Smith began studying law at
652:
638:
630:
38:
27:
324:Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army
19:For other people with similar names, see
400:
786:Unilateral Declaration of Independence
509:(ACT), Wednesday 22 March 1972, pg. 5
412:short account by Rebecca de Saintonge
7:
1033:Zimbabwean people of British descent
741:No independence before majority rule
721:Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland
591:possible military coup Rhodesia 1980
328:Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army
306:. It was claimed that the book was
269:. The couple eventually married in
179:Prime Minister of Southern Rhodesia
230:In 1972, Smith declared himself a
14:
872:Conservative Alliance of Zimbabwe
997:
996:
759:
318:During the period 1975 to 1979,
857:Government of Zimbabwe-Rhodesia
711:Southern Rhodesia Liberal Party
277:incident as 'the final straw'.
16:Zimbabwe National Army chaplain
836:1979 constitutional referendum
816:1975 Victoria Falls Conference
806:1969 constitutional referendum
746:1961 constitutional referendum
352:Movement for Democratic Change
1:
1058:Alumni of Chaplin High School
615:report on death of Alec Smith
429:Time magazine, October 1976:
1048:Rhodesian military personnel
776:1964 independence referendum
367:, Smith suddenly suffered a
781:Rhodesian mission in Lisbon
531:Son of Ian Smith Is Married
446:article on the Smith family
21:Alec Smith (disambiguation)
1079:
716:1953 federation referendum
570:Press Release, 2004 :
503:RHODESIA PM's son had drug
18:
992:
862:Lancaster House Agreement
757:
667:
225:Rhodesian Security Forces
37:
1053:Rhodes University alumni
736:Decolonisation of Africa
689:Leader of the Opposition
685:and successors (1964–87)
558:18 November 2007 at the
410:, 2 February 2006 :
339:black nationalist party
302:rule in Rhodesia titled
146:Early life and education
841:Air Rhodesia Flight 827
831:Air Rhodesia Flight 825
620:12 January 2009 at the
431:The Man who cried Uncle
128:Alexander Douglas Smith
54:Alexander Douglas Smith
1038:White Rhodesian people
821:1976 Geneva Conference
577:14 August 2006 at the
304:Now I Call Him Brother
296:Zimbabwe National Army
136:Zimbabwe National Army
691:of Zimbabwe (1980–87)
464:Joyce, Peter (1974).
417:12 March 2007 at the
314:Political involvement
796:Harry letters affair
726:United Federal Party
601:MRA in Africa :
451:26 July 2011 at the
232:born-again Christian
117:Janet Duvenage Smith
826:Internal Settlement
493:, 14 December 1970.
354:in the late 1990s.
183:Chaplin High School
811:Rhodesian Bush War
589:Operation Quartz:
536:The New York Times
507:The Canberra Times
252:Rhodesian Bush War
1043:People from Gweru
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881:General elections
390:, 2 February 2006
287:White Zimbabweans
240:Black nationalist
187:Rhodes University
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112:Ian Douglas Smith
72:Southern Rhodesia
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867:Republican Front
850:Post-premiership
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706:Military service
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365:Heathrow Airport
281:Life in Zimbabwe
236:Moral Rearmament
195:British passport
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408:The Independent
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442:The Zimbabwean
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521:, 18 May 1970
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250:By 1976, the
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219:Returning to
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44:Smith in 2002
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22:
985:(son-in-law)
970:
951:
801:Beira Patrol
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369:heart attack
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191:South Africa
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84:(2006-01-19)
25:
1028:2006 deaths
1023:1949 births
983:Clem Tholet
977:Janet Smith
790:signatories
769:Premiership
246:Life abroad
64:25 May 1949
1017:Categories
971:Alec Smith
613:24 Hours:
549:NZ History
395:References
210:Mozambique
206:Portuguese
132:Alec Smith
130:(known as
95:Occupation
60:1949-05-25
32:Alec Smith
1063:Ian Smith
678:(1964–79)
661:Ian Smith
519:The Times
491:The Times
330:(ZIPRA).
242:leaders.
167:Hurricane
140:Ian Smith
1002:Category
676:Rhodesia
618:Archived
575:Archived
556:Archived
449:Archived
415:Archived
320:Rhodesia
221:Rhodesia
214:cannabis
158:and 500
152:Shurugwi
99:Chaplain
444: :
341:ZANU-PF
208:-ruled
105:Parents
979:(wife)
964:Family
956:(1997)
474:
373:Harare
275:Norway
267:Norway
256:London
973:(son)
358:Death
172:rugby
160:White
156:Black
68:Gwelo
936:1985
931:1980
926:1979
921:1977
916:1974
911:1970
906:1965
901:1962
897:1958
893:1953
888:1948
472:ISBN
271:Oslo
162:).
79:Died
50:Born
674:of
201:.
189:in
1019::
533:,
505:,
375:.
227:.
142:.
70:,
792:)
788:(
653:e
646:t
639:v
480:.
62:)
58:(
23:.
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