MARQUARD, LEOPOLD

Leo Marquard (June 18, 1897-March 27 1974) was a distinguished teacher and historian, and an influential liberal who was one of the founders of the South African Liberal Party.

PHOTO CAPTION: Leopold Marquard. SOURCE: EA Library

An Afrikaner of Huguenot descent, he was born in Winburg, in the Orange Free State, and educated at Grey University in Bloemfontein. He won a Rhodes scholarship to Oxford and there obtained a Master of Arts degree at New College. Upon his return to South Africa, he became a senior history master at Grey College School. In 1924 he founded the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), later becoming its president. He remained at Grey College School from 1923 to 1940. NUSAS became an important influence not only in student affairs but in the larger development of South African politics.

Marquard, too, had his role to play in the educational and political growth of South Africa. While serving as a major, then colonel, in the South African Army during World War II, the quiet, unassuming Marquard nevertheless played a key role in providing a liberal education to the forces in the Middle East.

In 1945 he represented South Africa at UNESCO’s inaugural conference. During crucial moments in his country’s history in 1946 and 1948, Marquard pressed for the formation of a multiracial Liberal Party. This did not happen, however, until 1953, when, with Alan Paton and Margaret Ballinger, M.P., he helped to found the Liberal Party. He was president of the South African Institute of Race Relations in 1957 and 1958 and was awarded an honorary doctorate by that institute.

Marquard’s liberalism was dedicated but with a distinctly practical bent, unfogged by sentimentality. In 1946, when the government of Jan Smuts ordered police raids on Communist, African National Congress, and trade union offices, he protested that any interference with civil liberties was dangerous, he feared for the future of white-black relations. As far back as the 1920s, while teaching history at Grey College, Marquard influenced such students as Bram Fischer  with his integrity and uncompromising vision. Among his publications are The People and Policies of South Africa (1952) and The Story of South Africa (1966).

MARY BENSON