Ian Smith

Ian Smith
Term of office 13 April 1964 - 1 June 1979
Political party	Rhodesian Front
Preceded by	Winston Field
Born	1919
Died	2007
Spouse	Janet (1948 - 1994)
Religion	Presbyterian

Ian Douglas Smith was born April 8, 1919 in the town of Selukwe, Southern Rhodesia. In 1964 Smith became Prime Minister of Rhodesia. Ian Smith died peacefully in Cape Town, South Africa on November 20, 2007, at the age of 88.

Early life

Ian Douglas Smith was born in the small mining village Selukwe in 1919 roughly 310 kilometres away from the then colony's capital Salisbury. There were also his two elder sisters Phyllis and Joan. His father John Smith, immigrated from Scotland and in 1898 and his mother in 1906. John later became a successful horse rancher, Jock and his British-born spouse Agnes met in 1907, when she was sixteen, a year after her family's emigration to Selukwe from Frizington, Cumberland, now Cumbria. After Mr Hodgson sent his wife and children back to Great Britain in 1908, John Smith arrived unannounced in Cumberland to ask for Agnes's hand in marriage; they had not seen each other for three years. They later married in Frizington. From a young age expectations were high for young Ian, after he attended primary school he resided at boarding lodgings, after success in sport he was promoted to head prefect and captains in rugby, cricket, and tennis respectively. This allowed him to attend Rhodes university college in South Africa, due to the fact Rhodesia lacked its own college system. After injuring his knee he became stroke for the college's university rowing crew.