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Alexander Douglas Smith, commonly known as Alec Smith (25 May 1949 – 19 January 2006), was born in Gwelo, Southern Rhodesia.〔''The Independent'', 2 February 2006 :(short account by Rebecca de Saintonge )〕 The son of Ian Smith, the Prime Minister of Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) from 1964 to 1979, he became a chaplain in the Zimbabwe National Army and a farmer. Ian Smith had married Janet Watt in late 1948, after returning from war service with facial disfigurement resulting from crashing his Spitfire while taking off from an airfield in Egypt. Watt was a South African school teacher who had previously been married to Dr Piet Duvenage, a South African who had died as the result of a sporting accident while playing rugby. At the time Watt met Ian Smith, she was struggling to support herself and two young children on a modest teacher's salary.〔Time magazine, October 1976: (The Man who cried Uncle )〕 Ian Smith adopted Watt's two children, Robert and Jean, from her earlier marriage and brought them up, as his own, with Alec. Alec's relations with his mother were always more difficult than those he had with his father.〔''The Zimbabwean'' :(article on the Smith family )〕 ==Life== Alec grew up on the family farm in Selukwe (now Shurugwi). Selukwe was a small mining and farming town with a population in the 1950s of around 8,500 (8,000 black and 500 white). In April 1964, when Alec was 14, his father became Prime Minister of Rhodesia. Alec later suggested that this had caused family life to suffer. In 1970 Alec started studying for a degree in law at Rhodes University in South Africa. On his own for the first time, Alec became increasingly alienated from his background and neglected his studies in favour of partying, alcoholism, and drugs. He first came to public attention at this time by applying for a British passport while declaring that he did not agree with his father's political views and still considered himself a loyal British subject.〔''The Times'', 14 December 1970〕 He was expelled from university at the end of his first year in 1971. While returning from a subsequent vacation in Mozambique, Smith was found to be in possession of LSD and amphetamines by the South African authorities. He was convicted of drug trafficking, fined and given a suspended prison sentence. Returning to Rhodesia, Alec held a number of odd jobs. He also served without distinction as a conscript in the Rhodesian Security Forces. Alec's lifestyle continued to be exuberant and this did not impress his conservative, church-going parents. However, at no time did they disown him. In 1972 Smith claimed to have become a born-again Christian, declaring that God had freed him from his past debauchery and helped him see the injustice of racial discrimination. He aligned himself with the Moral Rearmament group, held public meetings promoting majority rule, and befriended a number of black nationalist leaders. By 1976 the Rhodesian Bush War was escalating and many white soldiers were recalled to active duty. Alec was called up, but declined to serve and emigrated to London. His half-brother Robert, similarly alienated from Rhodesian politics, had been living in the UK since 1970.〔''The Times'', 18 May 1970〕 His father seemed to accept Alec's decision and the two remained in regular communication by letter and telephone. While in London, Alec met Elisabeth Knudsen, an exchange student from Norway. The couple eventually married in Oslo, early in 1979. Alec invited his parents to attend the wedding and though Ian Smith was anxious to do so, he was denied an entry permit by the Norwegian government. The elder Smith later related considerable bitterness over the refusal of the international community to recognise Rhodesia, and described the Norway incident as 'the final straw'. Following a brief tenure under a provisional administration chaired by Abel Muzorewa, the territory finally achieved recognition as Zimbabwe in early 1980.〔''NZ History'' article :(Operation Agila, "The British Empire's Last Sunset" )〕 Alec finally returned to Zimbabwe between December 1979 and March 1980. He remained ostracised by some white Zimbabweans who considered him a traitor, and more than a few black Zimbabweans who refused to accept him due to his family. However, he and Elisabeth settled into an otherwise mundane family life, reconciling with Ian. During the 1980s and early 1990s, Alec held a number of jobs including, from 1991 to 1996, managing director of a professional football team (the Black Aces). Although not an ordained priest, he became a reserve chaplain in the new Zimbabwe National Army. Alec and Elisabeth produced three children - two daughters and one son. Ian Smith's family role as a grandfather offered him some solace after Janet's death in 1994. Alec later became his father's business partner. In this capacity he assisted in the editing of his father's memoirs and took over the running of the family's agricultural interests including the estate at Shurugwi. In 1984 he wrote a semi-autobiographical account of the struggle for majority rule in Rhodesia titled ''Now I Call Him Brother''. It was claimed that the book was ghost-written for Alec by the professional writer Rebecca de Saintonge.〔Press Release, 2004 :(de Saintonge bio )〕 The book was not rated highly in literary terms and included the following comments on President Robert Mugabe (p124) : "Mr Mugabe's Independence speech should have roused every Christian heart in the land. The whole tone of his talk was so Christian in content that every believer's heart should have been warmed by the thought that he was talking our language."〔Trash Fiction :(review of "Now I Call Him Brother" )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alec Smith」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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