Ernest George Jansen

Who was Ernest George Jansen?

Ernest George Jansen was the second-last Governor-General of the Union of South Africa, holding office from 1950 to 1959.

Born in 7 August 1881, he graduated with a law degree from the University of the Cape of Good Hope in 1905, and was admitted as an advocate in 1913.

An ardent champion of Afrikaner interests, he joined the National Party in 1915 and was a member of Parliament from 1915 to 1920, from 1921 to 1943, and from 1947 to 1950.

In 1919, he was a member of a delegation which tried unsuccessfully to persuade American president Woodrow Wilson to call for independence to be restored to the former Boer republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal.

In Parliament, Jansen was Speaker of the House of Assembly from 1924 to 1929, Minister of Native Affairs and of Irrigation from 1929 to 1934, and Speaker again from 1934 to 1943. He was highly regarded for his firm and impartial speakership.

He was Minister of Native Affairs again from 1948 to 1950, but was thought to be too soft on the new policy of apartheid, for which his department was primarily responsible.