Person

Smalberger, John Michael

1945-1977

John Michael Smalberger was born in Kimberley on the 13th February 1945 and died on the 20th January 1977. He matriculated at Kimberley Boys' High School in 1962. He obtained his B.Com. degree at U.C.T. in 1965 and his BA(Hons) in Economics in 1966. In 1969 he completed his M.A. thesis on Copper mining in Namaqualand, a revision of which was published in 1975 under the title: 'Aspects of the history of copper mining in Namaqualand, 1846-1931'. During the time he worked on his thesis he was employed first as a clerk at Mobil, and then in the Department of Economics at U.C.T. In 1970 he registered for a Ph.D., planning to write a thesis on the history of Namaqualand, but after being awarded a scholarship for study overseas he went to the University of Edinburgh as a non-graduating student. At this time he became interested in the history of diamond mining in South Africa. When he returned to South Africa at the end of 1971 he entered employment with the Cape Archives and worked there until April 1976, during which time he completed the History II and III courses at UNISA, revised his M.A. thesis, and published two articles on aspects of diamond mining. He registered for a Ph.D. degree at U.C.T. on the 'History of the Diamond Fields, 1869-1888'. The general emphasis was to be on labour conditions, and he had collected a great amount of material, though he had not yet started writing his thesis, at the time of his death. In September 1976 another article on the diamond fields was published. Besides his work on the diamond fields, he was also collecting material for, and planning articles on, various aspects of labour in South Africa, and a history of homosexuals in S.A. from 1652 to 1977.