Background
He was born on 19 January 1896 at Houtenbeck in the Merweville district of the Cape Colony to Marthinus Frederik Erasmus and his wife Hester Maria Jacoba Maritz.
He was born on 19 January 1896 at Houtenbeck in the Merweville district of the Cape Colony to Marthinus Frederik Erasmus and his wife Hester Maria Jacoba Maritz.
University of Cape Town.
Erasmus first married Christina Wiese of Melsetter in the then Southern Rhodesia. In 1927 he was appointed Deputy Attorney General of South West Africa. Afterwards he entered politics and was elected to Parliament in 1933.
He joined Doctorate F Malan"s cabinet as the Minister of Defence in 1948.
He was widely considered to be incompetent and was very unpopular because of his broad changes to the military to remove what he called the "British Influence". This included the removal of items such as the Red Tabs (Rooi Luise) and the retrenchment or firing of numerous English-speaking officers and the appointment of Afrikaner ones in their place.
After his term as Minister of Justice he was appointed Ambassador to Italy. A Strike Craft SAS Frans Erasmus of the South African Navy was named after him.