 Plagis set up and ran a bottle store bearing his name in Salisbury , and was involved in several businesses during the next three decades , serving as a director on company boards , including Central African Airways from 1963 to 1968 . He joined the Rhodesian Front on its formation in 1962 , and was its candidate in Salisbury City in that year 's general election , losing to the United Federal Party 's John Roger Nicholson by 631 votes to 501 . According to a report published by the Zimbabwe African National Union in 1969 , Plagis was by then working in the office of the Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith ( himself a Second World War Spitfire pilot ) , with responsibility for the premier 's written correspondence . 
