Identity area
Reference code
Title
Date(s)
- 1891 - 1950 (Creation)
Level of description
Fonds
Extent and medium
67 boxes and photographs
Context area
Name of creator
Biographical history
Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr was born in Cape Town on 20 March 1894, the younger son of Andries Brink Hofmeyr (1851-1897) and his second wife Deborah Catherina Boyers. His father was business manager of the newspaper Ons Land, Secretary of the Afrikaner Bond and a cousin of J.H. 'Onze Jan' Hofmeyr. His mother, a member of an old Stellenbosch family, was a strong imperious character, who had an important influence on her younger son.
Hofmeyr was a brilliant student, with an intellect bordering on genius. He matriculated, aged twelve, at the South African College School in 1906, first in the school and third in the Cape Colony. In 1909 he obtained a B.A. with first-class honours at the South African College, winning the university gold medal for literature and a Rhodes scholarship. Before going to Balliol College, Oxford, in 1913, he took a Science B.A. and a first-class Classics M.A. His career was equally brilliant at Oxford where he gained a double first in classical honour moderations in 1914 and literae humaniores in 1916. In this year he returned to South Africa, lecturing in classics at the South African College and, in December, being appointed Professor of Classics at the South African School of Mines and Technology, Johannesburg, later the University of the Witwatersrand. This was the start of an illustrious career at 'Wits' where he became principal in 1919, vice-chancellor (then an honorary post) in 1926 and chancellor in 1938.
Hofmeyr left the academic world in 1924 to become Administrator of the Transvaal, thus marking the beginning of his political career. He was a successful administrator, attracting the notice of men such as J.B.M. Hertzog and J.C. Smuts. In 1929 he won a by-election at Johannesburg North and helped to play a considerable part in welding the National and South African. Parties into the United Party. He became Minister of Education, the Interior and Public Health in 1933. His liberal attitude towards Blacks, Coloureds and Indians embarrassed the United Party, despite which he remained in the cabinet, changing his portfolio to Labour and Mines in 1936, until 1938 when he resigned over the appointment of A.P.J. Fourie to the senate as a member specially qualified to speak for the Blacks. He resigned from the United Party caucus in 1939 over the Asiatics (Transvaal Land and Trading) Bill but remained in parliament as an independent United Party supporter.
The outbreak of war led to his returning to the cabinet as Minister of Finance and Education and during the war years he worked unstintingly for the war effort, shouldering much of the burden when Smuts was overseas and he was acting prime minister. It was felt by many that his liberalism cost the United Party the election in 1948, although Hofmeyr himself retained his seat.
Many honours were bestowed on him. In 1945 he was awarded a D.C.L. by Oxford University and was sworn in as a privy councillor; in 1946 he was made an honorary fellow of Balliol and an honorary bencher of Gray's Inn. He was a brilliant administrator, an indefatigable worker and a liberal thinker but essentially a simple man who enjoyed boys' camps and cricket. His early death (on 3 December 1948) was a tragedy for South Africa.
Dictionary of South African Biography, Vol. II, p.309
A. Paton. South African tragedy: the life and times of Jan Hofmeyr (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1965)
Archival history
The J.H.Hofmeyr Papers were deposited in the library of the University of the Witwatersrand in 1949 by Hofmeyr's mother, Mrs Deborah C. Hofmeyr. Further material was added the following year. In 1966 some of Hofmeyr's regular correspondents were approached, as a result of which additional letters were acquired, being the originals of letters written by Hofmeyr.
Mrs Hofmeyr appointed E.H.Brookes, J.H.Louw and J.P.Cope as trustees of the papers. In 1951 Paul Ribbink started to classify them but did not complete the task. It fell to the then university archivist, the late I.Isaacson, to complete the task in 1965 when the library set up a separate Department of Historical and Literary Papers. This inventory is an expansion of the classification scheme used by Isaacson, with only minor changes in the arrangement.
Immediate source of acquisition or transfer
Content and structure area
Scope and content
The papers of J.H.Hofmeyr, spanning the years 1891-950, with the preponderance between 1913 and 1948, consist of correspondence, diaries, documents, memoranda, speeches, college notes, drafts of published and unpublished writings, scrap-books, postcard albums and photographs.
They are an invaluable source of primary material for the historian researching the political history of South Africa between the two world wars and during the second world war. The correspondence consists mainly of letters to Hofmeyr, although there are some originals and copies of letters written by him, and it is primarily in English with a few in Afrikaans. His correspondents include such politicians as L.Botha, J.B.M.Hertzog, D.F.Malan, F.S.Malan and J.C.Smuts. There is much on the history of the formation of the United Party, its activities from 19341948 and the growth of the National Party.
Appraisal, destruction and scheduling
Accruals
System of arrangement
The inventory lists the number of items in each file, mentions the names of the principal correspondents, indicates the subject field and itemises anything of particular importance.
All speeches and addresses have been individually described. In the case of the extensive general correspondence in section Aa, each letter has been given an individual number to assist in retrieval. A biographical sketch of J.H.Hofmeyr is included as is a comprehensive index of all personal names mentioned in the inventory and of selective subject fields. The pen and ink sketch of Hofmeyr by John Henry Amshewitz (18821942), used for the frontispiece, is by kind permission of Miss J.Biddles, University Archives, University of the Witwatersrand.
All speeches and addresses have been individually described. In the case of the extensive general correspondence in section Aa, each letter has been given an individual number to assist in retrieval. A biographical sketch of J.H.Hofmeyr is included as is a comprehensive index of all personal names mentioned in the inventory and of selective subject fields. The pen and ink sketch of Hofmeyr by John Henry Amshewitz (18821942), used for the frontispiece, is by kind permission of Miss J.Biddles, University Archives, University of the Witwatersrand.
Conditions of access and use area
Conditions governing access
Conditions governing reproduction
Language of material
Script of material
Language and script notes
The following abbreviations have been used:
Ms Manuscript
Ptd Printed
Ts Typescript
Physical characteristics and technical requirements
Finding aids
Allied materials area
Existence and location of originals
Existence and location of copies
Related units of description
Publication note
The papers were extensively used by Alan Paton for his biography South African tragedy: the life and times of Jan Hofmeyr, published by Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1965.
Notes area
Note
Alternate title: Hofmeyr, Jan Hendrik