Roy Welensky
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Sir Roy Welensky (January 20, 1907 - December 5, 1991) was a white African politician and the second and final prime minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland. Welensky was born in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia. His father was a Polish Jew who settled in Southern Rhodesia after first emigrating to the United States and then South Africa while his mother was an Afrikaner. He would later describe himself as "half Jewish, half Afrikaner and 100% British".
Welensky left school at the age of 14 and spent his teen years wandering around the continent working at jobs varying from railroading to boxing before settling in Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) where he worked on the railroad as a main line engine conductor and became involved in the trade union movement as well as heavyweight boxing champion of the colony.
In 1933, Welensky became chairman of the local branch of the Railway Workers' Union. He was first elected to the Northern Rhodesian Legislative Council in 1938 and served in the colonial upper house until the creation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland in 1953. He won election to the federation's newly formed legislative assembly and became a senior cabinet minister. In 1956 he succeeded Sir Godfrey Huggins as prime minister and continued in that role until the federation collapsed in 1963 with the creation of Zambia and Malawi as independent states under black majority rule.
With the collapse of the federation, Welensky moved to Rhodesia (formerly Southern Rhodesia) which had reverted to crown colony status and remained under white minority rule. He opposed the Ian Smith government's Unilateral Declaration of Independence.
| Preceded by: Sir Godfrey Martin Huggins, 1st Viscount Malvern 1953 - 1956 |
Prime Minister of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland | Followed by: position abolished in 1963 |