Smuts general correspondence and speeches

Containers:

Box 7

Component identifier:

Subseries 1D

Content Summary:

The subseries comprises copies of a small number of letters of Smuts, written between 1924 and 1949, including letters to Dr John Hutchinson, a botanist, for whom Smuts wrote the forward to his book A Botanist in South Africa. Other correspondents include Sarah Millin, General Sir Charles Crewe and Lord Hankey. Smuts' speeches were addressed to various audiences including the United Party Congress (October 1944), a BBC broadcast (May 1946), some addresses at Cambridge and on the occasion of his receiving of the Freedom of Johannesburg (May 1950).

Immediate source of acquisition:

The first part of this collection was donated by Sir Keith Hancock in February 1963 when he gave his original manuscript of the first volume of his biography of General Smuts to the National Library. He subsequently made several large additions to the collection. In October 1968 Sir Keith donated a further draft of his Smuts biography, working notebooks, correspondence, and copies of excerpts from the Smuts archives. Sir Keith destroyed his own personal papers and gave material relating to the Australian National University to the Registrar of the University. Any material he had retained on the British War History was sent to the Australian War Memorial. The corrected typescript of Attempting History was received by the National Library in June 1969. The manuscript of Discovering Monaro was donated by Sir Keith in August 1971, with the typescript following in February 1972. In August 1975 Sir Keith donated all his material on the Black Mountain Tower and Fraser Island controversies. This included court transcripts, correspondence, newspaper cuttings and other papers. These were supplemented by further donations by Pam Coward (Hancock's secretary) in October 1976, Joan Lynravn in 1978 and Stephen Foster in 1996.

Names:

William Keith Hancock

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