Oswald Pirow, QC (14 August 1890 – 11 October 1959) was a South African lawyer and far-right politician who held office as minister of justice, and later minister of defence for the National and United Party, respectively. Pirow eventually left the UP upon the Second World War and joined Daniel Malan's reunited National Party but eventually broke within Malan founded the New Order, a marginal proto-fascist group that dissembled before the end of the war. A celebrated jurist, including by future President Nelson Mandela, he served the NP government as a prosecutor in the Treason Trial until his death. Early life Born in Aberdeen, Cape Colony (now Eastern Cape South Africa), Pirow was the son of German immigrants - he was the elder son of Carl Ferdinand Pirow, a doctor of medicine. He was educated at Potchefstroom, Transvaal, before continuing his education in Germany and England. He was admitted to the Middle Temple on 15 October 1910 and was Called to the Bar on 4 June 1913. He then practised law in Pretoria, becoming a King's Counsel in 1925. He married Else Piel in 1919, the marriage producing two sons and two daughters. During this time Pirow was a keen sportsman and was a champion at the javelin throw, whilst also excelling at boxing, wrestling, fencing, sprinting, swimming, horsemanship and big game hunting. Pirow came to prominence in the early 1920s following a strike by white gold miners in the Witwatersrand, who were striking against the introduction of cheaper black labourers to the mines. The strike was put down when the government sent in troops, but in the resulting court cases Pirow was noted for his defence of the strike leaders. Move into politics Pirow came under the influence of Tielman Roos, an important figure in Transvaal and became a member of James Barry Munnik Hertzog's National Party being elected to parliament for Zoutpansberg in 1924. He was eliminated in 1929 however after running against Jan Smuts in Standerton. However, despite this he was appointed to the Cabinet as Minister of Justice in place of Roos, who stood down, initially as a nominated senator. He won a by-election in October 1929 in Gezina however to confirm things and continued to represent the seat until 1943. Pirow advocated the merger of the National Party to the South African Party and became a leading member of their new government, forming Hertzog's 'inner