{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2025}} {{Use South African English|date=August 2016}} {{Infobox person | name = Thomas Chalmers Robertson | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1907|9|15}} | birth_place = Middelburg, South Africa | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|1989|1|11|1907|9|15}} | death_place = Durban, South Africa | occupation = Writer, ecologist, conservationist }} '''Dr. Thomas Chalmers Robertson''' (15 September 1907 – 11 January 1989) was a South African writer, ecologist and conservationist.<ref name="BirdingRoute">http://www.birdingroutes.co.za/southern_kzn/scbr/sites/skznbrbs12.2_robertson_reserve.html, retrieved 23 December 2010,</ref> During World War II, he was a war correspondent and wrote anti-Nazi propaganda for the government of Jan Smuts.<ref name="Bell">Bell, S. The Happy Warrior: The Story of TC Robertson. {{ISBN|978-0-620-33255-2}}</ref>
== Conservation == Robertson advocated for soil and grassland conservation in Southern Africa.<ref name="JustDone"/>
The T.C.Robertson Nature Reserve, outside Scottburgh, KwaZulu-Natal, is named after him.<ref name="BirdingRoute"/><ref name="JustDone">{{cite web |url=http://www.justdone.co.za/shop/product.php?id_product=84 |title=Happy Warrior, The: The Story of TC Robertson |language=en |archive-date=24 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081224173728/http://www.justdone.co.za/shop/product.php?id_product=84 |website=justdone.co.za |access-date=2023-05-14}}</ref> He also helped establish Ilanda Wilds, a nature reserve in Amanzimtoti north of Scottburgh.<ref name="ColeenGillSun">Gill, C. ''Interest Shown in Ilanda Wilds'': South Coast Sun: 26 November 2010.</ref>
== "White nationalism" as a term == According to Dictionary.com, Robertson coined the term "white nationalism" in his 1948 essay ''Racism Comes to Power in South Africa: The Threat of White Nationalism''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=white nationalism |url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/white-nationalism |access-date=2022-08-06 |website=Dictionary.com |language=en}}</ref> However, Merriam-Webster has found earlier usage of the phrase, dating to 1925.<ref>{{cite web |title=Trending: Nationalists, Of The 'White' And 'Supremacist' Variety |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/news-trend-watch/nationalists-of-the-white-and-supremacist-variety-20170812 |access-date=15 May 2020 |publisher=Merriam-Webster |language=en}}</ref>
== References == {{reflist}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, Thomas Chalmers}} Category:South African naturalists Category:1907 births Category:1989 deaths Category:South African ecologists Category:20th-century South African journalists Category:20th-century naturalists Category:South African people of World War II Category:South African anti-fascists