Jean van der Poel (1904–1986) was a South African historian.

Education

Van der Poel was born in Cape Town, Cape Colony. She studied at the University of Cape Town (UCT), completing her doctorate, on railways and customs policies, at the London School of Economics, for which she was awarded magnum cum laude and which won her the Royal Empire Society prize. Her doctorate studies were financed by the Donald Currie Memorial scholarship.

Career

In 1929, van der Poel returned to South Africa and declined a position at UCT as lecturer for a post as history teacher. She took a very important role in the

South African Teacher’s Association South is one of the cardinal directions or compass points. The direction is the opposite of north and is perpendicular to both east and west. Etymology The word ''south'' comes from Old English ''sūþ'', from earlier Proto-Germanic ''*sunþaz ...

. In 1938 she decided to move to UCT, where she became a senior lecturer in 1954 and was offered the King George V chair of history in the 1960s, which she declined. Jean van der Poel retired in 1969. She died on 3 August 1986.

Published works

Some works are: * ''Railway and Customs Policies in South Africa, 1885–1910'', Longmans (1933) * ''The Jameson Raid'', Oxford University Press (1951) * ''Selections From the Smuts Papers'', vols 1–4 in collaboration with Professor WK Hancock, vols 5–7 alone, Cambridge University Press (1966–1973) * ''Native Education in South Africa'', Journal of the Royal African Society, Vol. 34, No. 136 (Jul., 1935), pp. 313–331.

References

1904 births 1986 deaths 20th-century South African historians Alumni of the London School of Economics University of Cape Town alumni Academic staff of the University of Cape Town Historians of South Africa {{SouthAfrica-historian-stub