Lorna de Smidt

Lorna de Smidt (1943–2022) was a South African-born activist based in England.

Biography Lorna de Smidt was born in 1943 in Kensington, Cape Town to parents of mixed ancestry. She was raised in Cape Town, South Africa. She also worked with the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF), raising money for the legal defence of political prisoners and support for their families.

Exile and career in English After the Soweto riots of 1976 and her illegal marriage to a white man, she became a refugee in England and lived rest of her life there. Tributes from former colleagues in the Anti-Apartheid Movement noted her decades of work supporting political prisoners and their families. She also featured in How I'd Love to Feel Free (1989), part of Channel 4’s South Africa Now series, which documented the work of anti-apartheid activists in exile.