Deneys Reitz

Deneys Reitz (3 April 1882 – 19 October 1944), was a South African soldier, author, adventurer and statesman. Best known as the author of Commando (1929), which detailed his experience in the Second Boer War, he also fought against the Maritz rebellion, and in the First World War in Africa and Europe. In the 1920s he began a decades-long political career included multiple ministerial portfolios, culminated in the office of Deputy Prime Minister under Jan Smuts. A lawyer by trade, his eponymous firm Deneys Reitz Inc went on to become one of South Africa's leading firms. Reitz died in office in 1944 as South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom.

The son of Orange Free State President Francis William Reitz, Reitz fought as a Boer commando for the duration of the Second Boer War, including as a Bittereinder under General Jan Smuts in the Cape Colony. After the war, he refused to sign an oath of allegiance to Britain, and followed his father into exile. After a difficult period in French Madagascar, Reitz returned to South Africa at the urging of Smuts, settling in Heilbron as a lawyer. Under Smuts' tutelage he accepted the new Union of South Africa and reconciled himself to its membership of the British Empire. At the start of the First World War, he took up arms to lead local pro-government forces in the suppression of the Maritz rebellion. Reitz then served with the South African Army in the South West Africa and East African campaigns, before joining the British Army in order to fight on the Western Front. Wounded twice in the trenches, he was mentioned in dispatches and finished the war in command of the 1st Royal Scots Fusiliers.

On returning to South Africa he commenced a political career, holding various portfolios in both the South African Party Government of 1921-1924 and in the United Party Government from 1933-1942. As Minister for Lands he helped lay the groundwork for establishing the Kruger National Park, and later served as one of its first Trustees. Outside of politics, he published Commando (1929), Trekking On (1933) and No Outspan (1943), and undertook expeditions to the Kalahari, Kaokoveld, the Belgian Congo and Angola. His political career culminated in serving as Deputy Prime Minister under Smuts, in which capacity he represented South Africa at the Dominions war conference of 1939. Reitz was appointed South African High Commissioner to the United Kingdom in 1942, and would die in office in 1944 in London.