Fred Smollan
Frederick Cecil Smollan was a South Africa national [rugby union team|South Africa] international rugby union player.
Career history
Fred Smollan was born in Uitenhage, South Africa in 1908 to David Smollan and Mathilda Goldwater, the second of four brothers. Educated at Muir College and later Grey High School, Smollan was only the second Jew to represent in rugby union, after Morris Zimerman. Smollan played club rugby for Wanderers RFC, regional rugby for Eastern Province and Transvaal and played three times for South Africa in 1933.His three internationals were all against Australia on the team's Australia [rugby union tour">Australia national rugby union team">Australia [rugby union tour of South Africa and Rhodesia|1933 tour] of South Africa. Although he would receive no further caps, he faced international opponents again, facing the 1938 [British Lions tour to South Africa|1938 British Lions] as part of the Transvaal team. Transvaal defeated the Lions 16–9, with Smollan scoring one of the tries.
In 1931 he set up a business Smollan Holdings, initially as a sales agency. With the outbreak of World War II he served in North Africa. He married Molly Amelia Raphaely in Johannesburg in 1943 and after the war returned to run his business which he built into a public company. Smollan and Molly had two children, Doug and Katherine. Smollan Holdings expanded to become the Smollan Group, a multinational company which now employs 34,000 people and outsources marketing services across the world. Smollan remained as its chairman until shortly before his death.