William Hills (1869-1959)

William Hills came to South Africa in 1895 as reporter for the "Port Elizabeth Advertiser", and thereafter worked on several newspapers in Pretoria, Port Elizabeth and Durban. He served as special war correspondent in the last campaign against the Zulu in Magatoland 1898 and interviewed Cecil Rhodes after the Jameson Raid. Later he formed the Amalgamated Press in 1921, and was the editor of 6 Rand papers. He undertook extensive tours overseas which were reported in his chain of newspapers. William Hills was interested in matters of education, religion, labour movement.

The Historical Papers research archive, situated in the William Cullen Library, was established in 1966. Its first holdings were the Jan Hofmeyr collection and the Gubbins collection as well as manuscripts which were transferred from the Africana section in the William Cullen Library.

It has since become one of the largest and most comprehensive independent archives in Southern Africa. We house over 3300 collections of historical, political and cultural importance, encompass the mid 17th Century to the Present.

The Historical Papers research archive, situated in the William Cullen Library, was established in 1966. Its first holdings were the Jan Hofmeyr collection and the Gubbins collection as well as other manuscripts which were transferred from the Africana section in the William Cullen Library.

It has since become one of the largest and most comprehensive independent archives in Southern Africa. We house over 3400 collections of historical, political and cultural importance, encompassing the mid-17th Century to the Present.

The History workshop at the University of the Witwatersrand, is a group of loosely constituted interdisciplinary academics and associated researchers, involved in a range of heritage and public history projects. Since its inception in 1977 it has been promoting research into the lives, experiences and social worlds of people and communities in South Africa, to address the erasures of colonialism and apartheid.

Their website can be found here https://www.wits.ac.za/history-workshop/ .

Jackson Hlungwani was a south African sculptor

R.F. Alfred Hoernle (1880-1943) originated from Bonn/Germany and was educated at Oxford/United Kingdom. In his career as a professional philosopher he taught at various Universities in the United States, United Kingdom and South Africa, where he was, till his death, Professor in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (1920-1943).

R.F.A. Hoernle took great interest in two great South African problems, the Afrikaaner - English problem and the European - Native problem, as it was called at the time. The latter was fully covered in his book "South African Native Policy and the Liberal Spirit". Hoernle served as Chairman and as member of the Council of the South African Institute of Race Relations; he was Chairman of the Bantu Men's Social Centre; and a delegate to the British Commonwealth Relations Conference at Sydney shortly before the outbreak of World War II.

Jan Hendrik Hofmeyr was born in Cape Town on 20 March 1894, the younger son of Andries Brink Hofmeyr (1851-1897) and his second wife Deborah Catherina Boyers. His father was business manager of the newspaper Ons Land, Secretary of the Afrikaner Bond and a cousin of J.H. 'Onze Jan' Hofmeyr. His mother, a member of an old Stellenbosch family, was a strong imperious character, who had an important influence on her younger son.

Hofmeyr was a brilliant student, with an intellect bordering on genius. He matriculated, aged twelve, at the South African College School in 1906, first in the school and third in the Cape Colony. In 1909 he obtained a B.A. with first-class honours at the South African College, winning the university gold medal for literature and a Rhodes scholarship. Before going to Balliol College, Oxford, in 1913, he took a Science B.A. and a first-class Classics M.A. His career was equally brilliant at Oxford where he gained a double first in classical honour moderations in 1914 and literae humaniores in 1916. In this year he returned to South Africa, lecturing in classics at the South African College and, in December, being appointed Professor of Classics at the South African School of Mines and Technology, Johannesburg, later the University of the Witwatersrand. This was the start of an illustrious career at 'Wits' where he became principal in 1919, vice-chancellor (then an honorary post) in 1926 and chancellor in 1938.

Hofmeyr left the academic world in 1924 to become Administrator of the Transvaal, thus marking the beginning of his political career. He was a successful administrator, attracting the notice of men such as J.B.M. Hertzog and J.C. Smuts. In 1929 he won a by-election at Johannesburg North and helped to play a considerable part in welding the National and South African. Parties into the United Party. He became Minister of Education, the Interior and Public Health in 1933. His liberal attitude towards Blacks, Coloureds and Indians embarrassed the United Party, despite which he remained in the cabinet, changing his portfolio to Labour and Mines in 1936, until 1938 when he resigned over the appointment of A.P.J. Fourie to the senate as a member specially qualified to speak for the Blacks. He resigned from the United Party caucus in 1939 over the Asiatics (Transvaal Land and Trading) Bill but remained in parliament as an independent United Party supporter.

The outbreak of war led to his returning to the cabinet as Minister of Finance and Education and during the war years he worked unstintingly for the war effort, shouldering much of the burden when Smuts was overseas and he was acting prime minister. It was felt by many that his liberalism cost the United Party the election in 1948, although Hofmeyr himself retained his seat.

Many honours were bestowed on him. In 1945 he was awarded a D.C.L. by Oxford University and was sworn in as a privy councillor; in 1946 he was made an honorary fellow of Balliol and an honorary bencher of Gray's Inn. He was a brilliant administrator, an indefatigable worker and a liberal thinker but essentially a simple man who enjoyed boys' camps and cricket. His early death (on 3 December 1948) was a tragedy for South Africa.

Dictionary of South African Biography, Vol. II, p.309

A. Paton. South African tragedy: the life and times of Jan Hofmeyr (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1965)

William Hosken: born 1851 in Cornwall. After studying engineering in Britain, Hosken came to South Africa where he established himself in the business sector; by the 1890s he was managing director of several gold mines in the vicinity of Johannesburg.

Hosken received a two year sentence for the part he played in the Jameson Raid which presumably explains why no newspaper clipping were collected between November 1895 March 1897.

Following services rendered to the Empire during the Boer war, Milner appointed Hoskins to the Johannesburg Council in 1902, Hoskins played furthermore a significant role in the Transvaal Parliament where he was known for his liberalism and support for Gandhi.

He died in 1925.