Charles William Henry Smit, son of Nicholas Hendrick (or Henry) Smit and his wife Mary Anne Sargeant, entered the civil service of the Cape Colony on 1 October 1890 as a practical assistant in the Department of Agriculture, at the Agricultural School, Somerset East. In September 1898 he became a clerk in the Statistical Branch of the Colonial Secretary's Department, and from May 1902 in the Department of Public Health and Local Government. After the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910 he was appointed on 1 April 1912 as senior clerk and assistant registrar of births and deaths (Cape Province) in the Department of the Interior. By 1917 he was the registrar of births and deaths for the Cape Province and in 1924 registrar of births, marriages and deaths for the Cape Province. He was married to Isobel Forrest Dickson in 1901.

Smit's only known contribution to science was a paper entitled 'Notes on the feeding habits of a ladybird larvae' presented at the annual congress of the South African Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Pietermaritzburg in 1916, and published in the annual Report of the association.

List of sources:

1820 Settlers Genealogies. http://www.1820settlers.co.uk/genealogy/index.php Search for Charles William Henry Smit.

Cape of Good Hope. Civil Service List, 1897, 1901, 1910.

FamilySearch: Charles William Henry Smit. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QGP6-XY1J?lang=en AND https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/GMJ3-WM7

National Automated Archival Information Retrieval System (NAAIRS). http://www.national.archives.gov.za/naairs.htm Documents relating to C.W.H. Smit.

South African Association for the Advancement of Science. Report, 1916, pp. 302-306, paper by C.W.H. Smit.

Union of South Africa. Public Service List 1914. Pretoria: Government Printer, 1914.

Compiled by: C. Plug

Last updated: 2025-12-09 11:29:09