The Honourable Johannes Hendricus Meiring Beck FRSE | |
---|---|
Minister of Communications, Telecommunications and Postal Services of South Africa | |
In office 1915–1919 | |
Prime Minister | Louis Botha |
Preceded by | Watt,T. |
Succeeded by | Orr,T. |
Personal details | |
Born | 28 November 1855 Worcester |
Died | 15 May 1919 63) Cape Town | (aged
Political party | South African Party |
Spouse | Emily Mary Kuys |
Children | 3 |
Profession | Physician,politician |
Sir Johannes Hendricus Meiring Beck,FRSE (28 November 1855,Worcester - 15 May 1919,Cape Town) was a Cape and later South African physician and politician. [1] He was a member of the Cape Colony delegation to the National Convention between 1908 and 1909,which led to the creation of the Union of South Africa, [2] and held various memberships of medical-professional and scholarly bodies in South Africa and the British realm. He was an early occupier of the office of the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs in South Africa.
Beck was knighted in 1911 [1] for his participation in the National Convention. [3]
Beck was born in Worcester in the Cape Colony to Cornelius Beck,an auctioneer and general agent,and Johanna Elisabeth Meiring on 28 November 1855. He attend school at the South African College and went on to study at the University of the Cape of Good Hope,where he graduated in 1874.
He studied medicine in Edinburgh,Scotland,and graduated with first-class honours with a Bachelor of Medicine and a Master in Surgery. In 1880,he was admitted as a member of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh and appointed as a house surgeon and physician at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh for 2 years. During this time,Beck also studied at hospitals in Berlin and Vienna.
He was awarded a Doctor of Medicine in absentia by the University of Edinburgh in 1890, [4] and became a member of the Royal Society of Edinburgh the next year.
Beck married Emily Mary Kuys in 1885. The couple had 3 daughters.
He died in Cape Town on 15 May 1919,at the age of 63. [1]
Beck was licensed to practice medicine in the Cape Colony in April 1881,practicing first in Kimberley and then in his hometown of Worcester,joining the practice of John Cloete. In September 1882,Beck was elected to the South African Philosophical Society,which would later become the Royal Society of South Africa,and remained a member for life. He was also a regular contributor to the then-South African Medical Journal.
He was appointed as Worcester district surgeon in 1883,but moved to Rondebosch near Cape Town in 1886,where he would remain for 20 years,becoming an additional district surgeon. He played a leading role in establishing the Rondebosch Cottage Hospital.
Beck was elected a member of the University of the Cape of Good Hope's council and served from 1886 to 1916,and served on the Cape Colonial Medical Council (today,the Health Professions Council of South Africa) between 1892 and 1903. He became President of the Cape Town branch of the British Medical Association in 1894. In 1903,he became a member of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science,of which he remained a part until at least 1906. [1]
In 1898 [1] or 1899,a bill initially sponsored by Sir Gordon Sprigg,but now championed by Prime Minister William Philip Schreiner,enlarged the Cape House of Assembly by 15 members,one seat of which represented the constituency of Worcester. Beck won this seat right at the outset of the Second Boer War,and despite his sympathies with the Boer republics,remained loyal to the Cape and Britain. [5]
In the immediate aftermath of the war,Beck was responsible for the treatment of the former State President of the Orange Free State,Martinus Theunis Steyn,who would later also be a delegate at the National Convention. [6] He retired from his medical practice in 1903 and moved to Tulbagh. [1]
Beck once joined John Xavier Merriman,Jan Christiaan Smuts and James Barry Munnik Hertzog on a trek to visit Robertson. He was also close friends with Louis Botha,who would become the first Prime Minister of South Africa.
After the Union of South Africa was established,Beck became a member of the Senate for the South African Party. He contested the race for the President of the Senate with Francis William Reitz (another former president of the Orange Free State),with Reitz winning the election after Beck withdrew as a favor to William Philip Schreiner. It was thought that one of the former leaders of the Boer republics should lead the Senate for symbolic and sentimental reasons. [7]
Beck later became the Minister of Posts and Telegraphs in Louis Botha's second ministry,serving from 1915 to 1919. [8] William Charles Scully wrote that "there was an urgent need for the extension of postal,telegraph and telephone facilities," but the Second World War made the necessary material expensive and difficult to obtain. [9]
Beck's known works include: [1]
The year 1870 in the history of the Cape Colony marks the dawn of a new era in South Africa,and it can be said that the development of modern South Africa began on that date. Despite political complications that arose from time to time,progress in Cape Colony continued at a steady pace until the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer Wars in 1899. The discovery of diamonds in the Orange River in 1867 was immediately followed by similar finds in the Vaal River. This led to the rapid occupation and development of huge tracts of the country,which had hitherto been sparsely inhabited. Dutoitspan and Bultfontein diamond mines were discovered in 1870,and in 1871 the even richer mines of Kimberley and De Beers were discovered. These four great deposits of mineral wealth were incredibly productive,and constituted the greatest industrial asset that the Colony possessed.
William Guybon Atherstone (1814–1898) was a medical practitioner,naturalist and geologist,one of the pioneers of South African geology and a member of the Cape Parliament.
John Xavier Merriman was the last prime minister of the Cape Colony before the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910.
The Maritz rebellion,also known as the Third Boer War,Boer revolt or Five Shilling rebellion,was an armed insurrection in South Africa in 1914,at the start of World War I. It was led by Boers who supported the re-establishment of the South African Republic in the Transvaal. Many members of the South African government were themselves former Boers who had fought with the Maritz rebels against the British in the Second Boer War,which had ended twelve years earlier. The rebellion failed,and its ringleaders received heavy fines and terms of imprisonment. One of them,Jopie Fourie,was executed.
Worcester is a town in the Western Cape,South Africa. It is the third-largest city in the western cape province of South Africa. It is located 120 kilometres (75 mi) north-east of Cape Town on the N1 highway north to Johannesburg.
William Philip Schreiner was a barrister,politician,statesman and Prime Minister of the Cape Colony during the Second Boer War.
Francis William Reitz,Jr. was a South African lawyer,politician,statesman,publicist,and poet who was a member of parliament of the Cape Colony,Chief Justice and fifth State President of the Orange Free State,State Secretary of the South African Republic at the time of the Second Boer War,and the first president of the Senate of the Union of South Africa.
Groote Schuur is an estate in Cape Town,South Africa. In 1657,the estate was owned by the Dutch East India Company which used it partly as a granary. Later,the farm and farmhouse was sold into private hands. Groote Schuur was later acquired by William De Smidt,and remained in the family's possession until it was sold by Abraham De Smidt,Surveyor General of the Cape Colony,in 1878,and was bought by Hester Anna van der Byl of the prominent Van Der Byl / Coetsee family. In 1891 Cecil Rhodes leased it from her. He later bought it from her in 1893 for £60 000,and had it converted and refurbished by the architect Sir Herbert Baker. The Cape Dutch building,located in Rondebosch,on the slopes of Devil's Peak,the outlying shoulder of Table Mountain,was originally part of the Dutch East India Company's granary constructed in the seventeenth century.
Rondebosch Boys' High School is a public English medium high school for boys situated in the suburb of Rondebosch in Cape Town in the Western Cape province of South Africa. It is one of the oldest schools in the country,having been established in 1897. Rondebosch is the only school in the Western Cape to have a Nobel Prize laureate,Allan M. Cormack in Physiology and Medicine.
William Charles Scully is one of South Africa's best-known authors,although little known outside South Africa. In addition to his work as an author,his paid work was principally as a magistrate in Springfontein,South Africa,as well as in Namaqualand and the Transkei. His last position before retirement was as Chief Magistrate of Port Elizabeth,one of South Africa's larger cities. He organised the building of "New Brighton",a township for aboriginal African people in Port Elizabeth. At the time it was regarded as very progressive—a pleasant place to live.
Daniël Cornelis Boonzaier,more commonly known as D.C. Boonzaier,was a South African cartoonist. He was famous for his caricatures of Cape politicians and celebrities at the turn of the century,and later for his anti-capitalist and anti-imperialist cartoons for Die Burger. He fathered the artist Gregoire Boonzaier.
Pieter Hendrik Kritzinger,was a Boer general and Assistant Commandant of the Forces of the Orange Free State and Commander-in-Chief of the Boer Rebel Forces in the Cape Colony and noted guerrilla commander during the Second Boer War who led the Boer invasions of the Cape Colony during the Guerilla Phase of the Second Boer War.
Koopmans-de Wet House is a former residence and current museum in Strand Street,Cape Town,South Africa. The house became part of the South African Museum in 1913 and was opened to the public on 10 March 1914. It was declared a National Monument under National Monuments Council legislation on 1 November 1940. It is the oldest house museum in South Africa.
Oliver Deneys Schreiner MC KC,was a judge of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa. One of the most renowned South African judges,he was passed over twice for the position of Chief Justice of South Africa for political reasons. He was later described as "the greatest Chief Justice South Africa never had".
John Dowie Borthwick (1867–1936) was a veterinary surgeon in the Cape Colony.
Jacquez Charl de Villiers,known as Kay de Villiers,was a South African neurosurgeon. He was the third child of Carel (Callie) van der Merwe de Villiers and Susanna Johanna Joubert. He died on 5 June 2018 in Cape Town at the age of 90 after a short hospital stay.
The National Convention,also known as the Convention on the Closer Union of South Africa or the Closer Union Convention,was a constitutional convention held between 1908 and 1909 in Durban,Cape Town and Bloemfontein. The convention led to the adoption of the South Africa Act by the British Parliament and thus to the creation of the Union of South Africa. The four colonies of the area that would become South Africa - the Cape Colony,Natal Colony,the Orange River Colony and the Transvaal Colony - were represented at the convention,along with a delegation from Rhodesia. There were 33 delegates in total,with the Cape being represented by 12,the Transvaal eight,the Orange River five,Natal five,and Rhodesia three. The convention was held behind closed doors,in the fear that a public affair would lead delegates to refuse compromising on contentious areas of disagreement. All the delegates were white men,a third of them were farmers,ten were lawyers,and some were academics. Two-thirds had fought on either side of the Second Boer War.
Ewald Auguste Esselen was a South African barrister who served as State Attorney of the South African Republic from 1894 to 1895.
Prof George Ritchie Thomson CMG FRSE LLD was a 19th/20th century Scottish military surgeon and expert on tropical medicine who served in the Second Boer War and First World War and advanced public health in South Africa.
The Johannesburg East Reformed Church was a congregation of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa (NGK) in the Johannesburg suburb of Doornfontein,just east of downtown. It is also known as the Irene Church after the sobriquet of its second and third churches on 1 Beit Street. Five weeks before its centennial,on June 1,1997,Johannesburg East was absorbed by the Johannesburg Reformed Church (NGK),from whence it had seceded on July 8,1897.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires |journal=
(help)