Janet Duvenage Smith (née Watt; 19153 December 1994), was the wife of Ian Smith, Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 1964 to 1979. Born in Cape Town, South Africa, she studied history at the University of Cape Town and became a teacher. In 1942, she married Piet Duvenage, a rugby player, and had two children. He died in an accident on the rugby field in 1947. The next year, a short visit with family in Southern Rhodesia became permanent when she accepted a teaching job in Selukwe. There, she met her future husband, Ian Smith, who had recently come home from the Second World War. In 1948, the couple got married and bought a farm, and Ian was elected to the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly.
In 1964, when Ian Smith became Prime Minister of Rhodesia, the family moved to the premier's residence in Salisbury. Smith split her time between state functions and managing the farm back in Selukwe. After Zimbabwean independence from the United Kingdom, her husband was defeated at the 1980 election, but remained in the Parliament of Zimbabwe until 1987. Smith continued to divide her time between Harare and the farm until her death from cancer in 1994.
Early life, education, and first marriage
Janet Watt was born in Cape Town in the Union of South Africa in 1915. Her parents were from Scotland, and her father was a surgeon. She attended the University of Cape Town, where she studied history, geology, and some philosophy, and was a star field hockey player. She was quite well known for playing hockey for Western Province. There, she briefly met her future husband, Ian Smith, who was on campus as a member of the visiting Rhodes University rugby team.
After graduating, Watt earned her teaching qualification and became a history teacher. In 1942, she married Piet Duvenage, a physician and rugby player. Together they had a son, Robert, and a daughter, Jean. Piet Duvenage died in a freak accident on the field during a club rugby practice in May 1947. A young widow, she was left to support her two young children on a teacher's salary.
Move to Southern Rhodesia and Ian Smith
In 1947, Duvenage took her two children to Selukwe, Southern Rhodesia, to stay with family for a short holiday. The move became permanent when she accepted a job offer from Selukwe Primary School. That year, through her sister, she became reacquainted with Ian Smith, who had recently returned to his hometown and was taking courses at Gwebi College of Agriculture. He later wrote that the qualities that had attracted him most to Janet were her intelligence, courage and "oppos[ition] on principle to side-stepping or evading an issue ... her tendency was to opt for a decision requiring courage, as opposed to taking the easy way out." In 1948, she and Smith became engaged, and she started a new position as the mathematics and geography mistress at Chaplin High School in nearby Gwelo.
Farming and politics
In July 1948, a general election was called in Southern Rhodesia after the United Party government, headed by the Prime Minister, Sir Godfrey Huggins, unexpectedly lost a vote in the Legislative Assembly. In August, about a month before election day, Ian Smith was approached by members of the opposition Liberal Party who asked him to run for election in Selukwe. Jacob Smit's Liberals, despite their name, were decidedly illiberal, chiefly representing commercial farming, mining and industrial interests. Smith was initially reluctant, saying he was too busy organising his life to stand, but agreed after one of the Liberal officials suggested that a political career might allow him to defend the values he had fought for in the Second World War. With their wedding barely a fortnight away, Smith was astonished to learn of her husband's decision to run for the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly, having never before heard him discuss politics. She asked him, "Are you interested in politics—party politics?" He replied, "I can't say that I am really interested in party politics, but I've always been most interested in sound government."