Frans Erasmus

Frans Christiaan Erasmus (1896 - 1967) was a South African National Party politician and Minister of Defence from June 1948 to 1959 as well as Minister of justice from 1959 - August 1961.

Early life
He was born on 19 January 1896 at Houtenbeck in the Merweville district of the Cape Colony to Marthinus Frederik Erasmus and his wife Hester Maria Jacoba Maritz.

Family life
Erasmus first married Christina Wiese of Melsetter in the then Southern Rhodesia. They had a son and a daughter. On 9 January 1946 he married Cornelia Margaretha (Corrie) Naudé of Lydenburg. They had three daughters.

Career
In 1927 he was appointed Deputy Attorney General of South West Africa. Afterwards he entered politics and was elected to Parliament in 1933. He joined D F Malan's cabinet as the Minister of Defence in 1948. He was widely considered to be incompetent and was very unpopular because of his broad changes to the military to remove what he called the "British Influence". This included the removal of items such as the Red Tabs (Rooi Luise) and the retrenchment or firing of numerous English-speaking officers and the appointment of Afrikaner ones in their place.

After his term as Minister of Justice he was appointed Ambassador to Italy.

A Strike Craft SAS Frans Erasmus of the South African Navy was named after him.