[4] There, she briefly met her future husband, Ian Smith, who was on campus as a member of the visiting Rhodes University rugby team.

[9] That year, through her sister, she became reacquainted with Ian Smith, who had recently returned to his hometown and was taking courses at Gwebi College of Agriculture.

[4] In July 1948, a general election was called in Southern Rhodesia after the United Party government, headed by the Prime Minister, Sir Godfrey Huggins, unexpectedly lost a vote in the Legislative Assembly.

[11] Smith was initially reluctant, saying he was too busy organising his life to stand, but agreed after one of the Liberal officials suggested that a political career might allow him to defend the values he had fought for in the Second World War.

With their wedding barely a fortnight away, Smith was astonished to learn of her husband's decision to run for the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly, having never before heard him discuss politics.

[8] They called it "Gwenoro", using the name that the local Karanga people used to refer to the stream,[12] and set up a ranch where they ran cattle and grew tobacco and maize.

[9] Ian adopted her children,[13] taking up the responsibilities of instant fatherhood, partially, as he explained, "because I knew [Piet Duvenage] so well" from playing rugby against him.

"[9] However, it soon became evident that her husband's political office necessitated that he spend a lot of time away from Selukwe working in Salisbury, meaning she would have to run the farm during his absences.

He left in 1961 in protest at the territory's new constitution, and the following year helped Winston Field to form the all-white, firmly conservative Rhodesian Front (RF), which called for independence without an immediate shift to black majority rule.

[16] Ian became Deputy Prime Minister following the Rhodesian Front's December 1962 election victory, and stepped up to the premiership after Field resigned in April 1964.

As the Prime Minister's wife, Smith spent much of her time involved with matters of state,[15] so much so that her son Alec described her as "a trace of perfume on the air" to him in those days.

"[18] In the face of United Nations economic sanctions, and with the support of apartheid South Africa, and, until 1974, Portugal, Rhodesia's government endured.

The Rhodesian Bush War ramped up beginning in 1972, with African nationalists fighting a white government that was increasingly under siege and isolated.

In 1978, Ian Smith and non-militant nationalists including Abel Muzorewa signed the Internal Settlement, under which he stepped down from the premiership and the country became Zimbabwe Rhodesia effective 1 June 1979.

The couple still maintained a residence in Harare (the new name for Salisbury), and Smith continued managing Gwenoro Farm while her husband focused on politics.