After graduating in South Africa, Jan Christian Smuts studied law at Cambridge. During the Boer War he served as strategist, military commander and negotiator on the Boer side. He later assisted in drafting the Act of Union which created the state of South Africa in 1910. From 1910 to 1919 he served as a central member of Botha's cabinet. He acquired a reputation for ruthlessness and intransigence in his handling of industrial and racial disputes, suffering moral defeat at the hands of Gandhi in the aftermath of the Natal miners strike. After Botha's death, he became Prime Minister of South Africa. Finding himself out of office in 1924, he worked on his book, 'Holism and Evolution', which was published two years later. He became Deputy Prime Minister in 1933 and Prime Minister again in 1939. In 1941 he became a British Field Marshal and was frequently consulted by Churchill. In 1948 he was defeated by the National Party in the South African election over the issue of apartheid, although he himself was a believer in what he referred to as 'differential development'. Labour MPs insisted that tact would be required in the sculpture siting, to ensure that Smuts, with his poor record in the race issue, should not be placed anywhere near Lincoln. However, Churchill eventually opted for Parliament Square.