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Abstract
The article examines the visit of King George VI and the British royal family to the Union of South Africa in 1947 and places it in the context of the continuing links binding English-speaking South Africans to Britain and the Royal Family during the post-war period. The article draws on the coverage given to the visit in English-language newspapers, journals and school magazines as well as on information provided by a number of English South Africans. English-language newspapers served as a forum for British and imperialist ideology in South Africa and the article examines the way in which they covered the visit and used it to emphasise the continuing importance to South Africa of the Crown and of links with Britain and the Commonwealth. The emphasis is on English-speakers and the visit to the predominantly English urban centres. Coming as it did only two years after the end of the Second World War, the participation of the predominantly English-speaking members of the armed forces and veterans receives prominence. The article concludes with the observation that because of the National Party electoral victory of 1948 the Royal Visit was the last time that English-speaking South Africans defined themselves as a British people in a British nation.
Notes
1 ‘Royal Family to visit South Africa’, Cape Times, 15 March 1946.
2 J.W. Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI, His Life and Reign (London: Macmillan, 1959), 685.
3 W. Shawcross, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother: The Official Biography (London: Macmillan, 2009), 591.
4 Shawcross, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, 610, 637.
5 The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA), Dominion Office Papers (hereafter DO) 119/1430, M/70/147, High Commissioner, Cape Town, to Secretary of State, Dominion Office, London, 16 May 1947.
6 H. Sapire, ‘African Loyalism and its Discontents: The Royal Tour of South Africa, 1947’, The Historical Journal, 54, 1 (2011), 215–240.
7 M.L. Connelly, ‘HMS Vanguard and the Royal Tour of 1947’, Quarterly Bulletin of the South African Library, 67, 1 (2013), 26–34.
8 For works I have published on white English-speaking South African identity, see J. Lambert, ‘“An Unknown People”: Reconstructing British South African Identity’, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 37, 4 (2009), 599–617. See also J. Lambert, ‘“The Last Outpost”: The Natalians, South Africa and the British Empire’, in R. Bickers, ed., Settlers and Expatriates: Britons Over the Seas (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), 150–177. For other historians who have examined English-speaking South African identity, see Lambert, ‘An Unknown People’, 599–600.
9 TNA, DO, 119, 1430, M/70/147, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 16 May 1947.
10 Natal Mercury, 24 March 1947, Editorial.
11 TNA, DO 119/1428, M/70/6, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, Note by Press Assistant, 16 April 1946.
12 Ibid.
13 Cape Times, 15 March 1946, Editorial.
14 Pretoria News, 15 March 1946, Editorial.
15 For Prince Alfred's visit to South Africa see, for example, B. Buchanan, Pioneer Days in Natal (Pietermaritzburg: Shuter & Shooter, 1934), 41–46. For the Prince of Wales's visit to Canada, see P. Magnus, King Edward the Seventh (London: John Murray, 1964), 32–41.
16 H. Nicholson, King George the Fifth: His Life and Reign (London: Constable, 1952), 67.
17 P. Buckner, ‘The Royal Tour of 1901 and the Construction of an Imperial Identity in South Africa’, South African Historical Journal, 41 (1999), 344.
18 P. Ziegler, King Edward VIII: The Official Biography (London: Collins, 1990), 114ff.
19 Ibid., 158.
20 D. Hart-Davis, ed., King's Counsellor: Abdication and War, The Diaries of Sir Alan Lascelles (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2006), 9. President F.D. Roosevelt invited the King and Queen to visit the United States as well, and, in light of the international situation, the British seized this opportunity to strengthen their friendship with the Americans. The visit to Canada and the USA is dealt with in Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI, 378–392.
21 See J. Connors, ‘The 1954 Royal Tour of Australia’, Australian Historical Studies, 25, 100 (1993), 371–382.
22 ‘Britse Koningsgesin Kom Na Unie’ [translation], Die Burger, 15 March 1946. See also editorials in Die Volksblad and Die Transvaler, 15 March 1946.
23 ‘Dr Malan and the Royal Visit’, Cape Times, 22 March 1946.
24 Sapire, ‘African Loyalism and its Discontents’, 222.
25 T. Wilks, The Biography of Douglas Mitchell (Durban: King & Wilks, 1980), 5.
26 Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House (hereafter RIofIA), 8/1389, A.M. Keppel-Jones, The Political Situation in South Africa, 27 March 1947, 1.
27 Natal Daily News, 17 February 1947, Editorial.
28 Cape Times, 9 May 1945, Editorial.
29 Information received from Joan Claassen, née Henderson, April 2004.
30 ‘My Queen Spoke To Me’, Pretoria News, 5 April 1947.
31 Cape Times, 15 February 1947, Editorial.
32 Natal Mercury, 24 March 1947, Editorial; see also Natal Witness, 17 February 1947, Editorial.
33 ‘The King of South Africa’, The Forum, 22 February 1947.
34 A. Jackson, The British Empire and the Second World War (London: Hambledon Continuum, 2006), 526.
35 Pretoria News, 3 September 1945, Editorial.
36 Cape Times, 19 February 1947, Editorial.
37 Royal Commonwealth Society, Cambridge University Library (hereafter RCMS), 219/2/1, Documents relating to the South African Aid to Britain Fund (London, HMSO, 1947). See also ‘Thank You Britain’, Pretoria News, 18 October 1945; ‘Scots Rally to the “People of Britain” Fund’, 2 February 1946; ‘More Money for “People of Britain” Fund’, 27 December 1946; ‘SA's Tribute to People of Britain’, 18 October 1946.
38 ‘Pretoria Opens UK Flood Relief Fund’, Pretoria News, 9 April 1947; ‘National “Parcels for Britain” Scheme’, 13 November 1947.
39 ‘Readers’ Forum’, Pretoria News, 25 February 1947.
40 Pretoria News, 19 April 1947, Editorial.
41 TNA, DO 119, M/70/115, Telegram, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 12 March 1947; Rand Daily Mail, 7 April 1947, Editorial.
42 Pretoria News, 17 February 1947, Editorial.
43 Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI, 687.
44 ‘20,000 Cheering Children’, Cape Times, 27 February 1947.
45 Connelly, ‘HMS Vanguard’, 27, 29; Shawcross, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, 611–612.
46 ‘Escort to Vanguard’, The Pretorian: Magazine of the Pretoria Boys’ High School, December 1947, 39.
47 ‘SAAF Escorts Vanguard on Last Lap’, Cape Times, 17 February 1947; ‘SA Navy Escorts the Vanguard’ and ‘Vanguard Escorted Into Port’, Cape Times, 18 February 1947.
48 Cape Argus, 17 February 1947, Editorial.
49 Ibid.
50 ‘Meaning of “Home” widened’, London Times, in Cape Times, 25 April 1947.
51 Cape Times, 18 February 1947, Editorial
52 B. Pimlott, The Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth II (London: HarperCollins, 1996), 691.
53 P. Murphy, Monarchy & the End of Empire: The House of Windsor, the British Government, and the Postwar Commonwealth (Oxford: OUP, 2013), 61.
54 See P. Buckner, Canada and the End of Empire (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2005) 66.
55 See Cape Times and Cape Argus, 18 February 1947: both papers included extensive and exuberant coverage.
56 TNA, DO, 119, 1429, M/70/112, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 10 March 1947.
57 A.D. Divine (The Man on the Spot), ‘How Cape Town took Royal Family to its Heart’, Cape Times, 18 February 1947.
58 J. Lawrence, Harry Lawrence (Cape Town: Davis Philip, 1978), 185–186.
59 ‘Strange Highlights of the Royal Tour’, The Forum, 2 March 1947.
60 Shawcross, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, 620.
61 TNA, DO, 119, 1430, M/70/147, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 16 May 1947. There were many Africans waiting to see the family while in rural areas outside Natal the majority of whites were Afrikaners, often bringing horses should the princesses want to ride (Information received from Leonie Viljoen, April 2004).
62 Queen to Queen Mary, in Shawcross, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, 616.
63 C.A. Evenden, Old Soldiers Never Die: The Story of Moth 0 … (Durban: Robinson, 1952), 293; ‘And How Much We Would Like To Return’, Pretoria News, 7 April 1947.
64 M. Macdonald, ‘The Civic Luncheon', St Mary's DSG Magazine, 49 (1947), 15; ‘School History’, Pretoriana Liber Puellarum, 53 (1947–1948), 9.
65 Information received respectively from Fred Every, March 2002; Peggy Torr née Rubidge, July 2002; Joan Teeton, née Ribbink, June 2002; Jack Frost, April 2007; Marion Spies, née Dutton, October 2004; Michael Rowland, November 2003.
66 J. Mervis, The Fourth Estate: A Newspaper Story (Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 1989), 273, 5. See also Natal Mercury, 21 March 1947; Pretoria News, 28 March 1947, 7 April 1947; Sunday Times, 30 March 1947; Rand Daily Mail, 7 April 1947.
67 Pretoria News, 28 March 1947, Editorial.
68 Pretoria News, 20 February 1947, Editorial.
69 Churchill Archives Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge (hereafter CAC), Rt Hon Sir Alan Frederick Lascelles Papers (hereafter LAS), 4/4/9, Lascelles to his son, The White Train, approaching Bethlehem, 10 March 1947.
70 ‘Oudstryders Chat with Royalty’, Pretoria News, 29 March 1947.
71 Information received from Boet Pretorius, April 2014.
72 L. Becker and S. van Putten, We Work in Hope: A History of the Pretoria High School for Girls (Pretoria: n.pub., 1992), 96; D. Morrah, The Royal Family in Africa (London: Hutchinson, 1947), 52.
73 TNA, DO, 119, 1429, M/70/105, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 19 February 1947; M/70/112, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 10 March 1947.
74 TNA, DO, 119, 1429, M/70/124, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 2 April 1947.
75 Ibid.
76 ‘Royal Family Reaches Natal’, Natal Mercury, 14 March 1947.
77 Wilks, The Biography of Douglas Mitchell, 58.
78 ‘Capital of Natal Receives Royal Family’, Natal Mercury, 19 March 1947.
79 See various articles in the Natal Mercury, 19 March 1947.
80 ‘8 Miles of Cheering Crowds’, Natal Mercury, 21 March 1947; ‘300,000 Roar Durban's Royal Welcome’, Cape Times, 21 March 1947.
81 See various articles in the Natal Mercury, 21 March 1947.
82 Shawcross, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, 618.
83 Natal Mercury, 21 March 1947, Editorial.
84 See various articles in the Rand Daily Mail, 2 April 1947.
85 CAC, LASL, 4/4/13, Lascelles to his wife, The White Train, Johannesburg, All Fools, 1947.
86 ‘Reef Gives Royal Family Tremendous Reception’, Rand Daily Mail, 3 April 1947.
87 See Defence Force Document Centre, Unit Files, Cape Town Highlanders Historical Records, 9 February 1947.
88 Ibid., 17 and 21 February 1947. See also 21 and 24 April 1947.
89 ‘Government House Guard Duty’, Cape Times, 17 February 1947.
90 H.H. Curson, Colours and Honours in South Africa, 1783–1948 (Pretoria: n.pub., 1948), 46–47.
91 Ibid., 47.
92 ‘The Royal Visit – and the school’, The Pretorian: Magazine of the Pretoria Boys’ High School, December 1947, 32; ‘School History’, Pretoriana Liber Puellarum; ‘Biggest Ex-Service Parade of Tour’, Cape Times, 24 March 1947.
93 Diocesan College Magazine, XXXIL, 1 (April 1947), 31.
94 ‘City Tense with Excitement on Eve of Great Visit’, Pretoria News, 28 March 1947.
95 ‘From Day to Day’, Natal Mercury, 19 March 1947.
96 Connelly ‘HMS Vanguard’, 30.
97 Ibid., 30–32; see also Diocesan College Magazine, 79, 1 (April 1947), 31.
98 See various articles in Cape Times, 18 February 1947.
99 ‘Parade Ceremony another Royal Triumph’, Cape Times, 19 February 1947.
100 See Pretoria News, 1 and 5 April 1947; Rand Daily Mail, 7 April 1947.
101 My father, a veteran of the First World War, was invited to a number of functions in Pretoria.
102 M. Coghlan, Pro Patria: Another 50 Natal Carbineer Years, 1945–1995 (Pietermaritzburg: The Natal Carbineers Trust, 2000), 55–56.
103 See ‘Ex-Soldiers March Past the King’, Cape Times, 5 March 1947; ‘Rand's Welcome Million Strong’, 2 April 1947.
104 See ‘British and proud of it! Returned Sailors’, Soldiers, and Airmen's Imperial League of Australia’, in J. Arnold et al., Out of Empire: The British Dominion of Australia (Melbourne: Mandarin, 1993), 73.
105 The Springbok, 30, 15 (February 1947), 1.
106 ‘Royal Congress’, The Springbok, 30, 16 (March 1947), 4; ‘Ex-Soldiers March Past the King’, Cape Times, 5 March 1947.
107 N. Roos, Ordinary Springboks: White Servicemen and Social Justice in South Africa, 1939–1961 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), 179.
108 Evenden, Old Soldiers Never Die, 269, 272, 295.
109 Lambert, ‘The Last Outpost’, 171.
110 ‘Royal Family Reaches Natal’, Natal Mercury, 14 March 1947.
111 Evenden, Old Soldiers Never Die, 293–298; ‘Biggest Ex-Service Parade of Tour’, Cape Times, 24 March 1947.
112 ‘A Memory That Will Last, by Moth O’, Natal Mercury, 24 March 1947.
113 Evenden, Old Soldiers Never Die, 300.
114 See various articles in the Sunday Times, 30 March 1947.
115 Nongqai, April 1947, 513.
116 ‘Princess’ Mass Parade’ and ‘Big Day for Princess Elizabeth’, Cape Times, 22 April 1947.
117 Pimlott, The Queen, 17.
118 Sister Superior [no title], St Mary's DSG Magazine, 49 (1947), 3.
119 Natal Mercury, 22 April 1947, Editorial; The Star, 22 April 1947, Editorial.
120 ‘How Much We Love This Land of Promise’, Pretoria News, 24 April 1947.
121 H. Phillips, The University of Cape Town, 1918–1948: The Formative Years (Cape Town: UCT Press, 1993), 55.
122 Ibid., 136.
123 Morrah, The Royal Family in Africa, 125.
124 ‘Royal Tour Emphasised Sovereign Status of South Africa’, The Times, quoted in the Pretoria News, 24 April 1947.
125 Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI, 692.
126 CAC, LASL, 4/4/17, Lascelles to his wife, On board Vanguard, 30 April 1947.
127 ‘How Much We Love This Land of Promise’, Pretoria News, 24 April 1947.
128 The King had lost 17lbs while the Queen wrote that the crowds had left her ‘very, very tired’: Shawcross, Counting One's Blessings, 399. See also Shawcross, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, 615; S. Bradford, George VI (London: Penguin, 2011), 449.
129 Russell Landstrom, Associated Press [no title], Cape Times, 19 April 1947; ‘Results of the Royal Tour’, The Forum, 19 April 1947.
130 TNA, DO, 119, 1430, M/70/147, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 16 May 1947.
131 Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI, 692.
132 TNA, DO, 119, 1430, M/70/147, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 16 May 1947.
133 Cape Times, 16 May 1947, Editorial.
134 Natal Mercury, 16 May 1947, Editorial.
135 Wheeler-Bennett, King George VI, 689; Bradford, King George VI, 390.
136 R. Rhodes James, A Spirit Undaunted: The Political Role of George VI (London: Abacus, 1999), 295; Bradford, King George VI, 390.
137 Morrah, The Royal Family in Africa, 36.
138 Pimlott, The Queen, 119.
139 Shawcross, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, 637
140 Sapire, ‘African Loyalism and its Discontents’, 220.
141 Pretoria News, 28 March 1947, Editorial, 24 April 1947, Editorial; Natal Mercury, 21 March 1947, Editorial; Information received from DP Hodgson, May 2002 and from Rosemary Walker, January 2002.
142 See Cape Times, 25 April 1947, Editorial; Pretoria News, 28 March 1947, Editorial; Natal Mercury, 24 March 1947, Editorial.
143 ‘Meaning of “Home” Widened’, Cape Times, 25 April 1947.
144 Sapire, ‘African Loyalism and its Discontents’, passim, see esp. 218, 229, 236.
145 Ibid., 234; See also Cape Argus, 20 February 1947, Editorial; TNA, DO 119, 1430, M/70/147, High Commissioner to Secretary of State, 16 May 1947; Cape Times, 24 March 1947, ‘Biggest Service Parade of Tour’.
146 The Durban High School Magazine, June 1947, Editorial, 3; Pretoria News, 24 April 1947, Editorial.
147 For example, information provided by Marjorie Noel née Biggs, February 2003.
148 See ‘Britse Koninklike Gesin Kom na Suid-Afrika’, Die Volksblad, 15 March 1946.
149 This is borne out both by the photographs of the tour and by those of my informants who when describing waving flags, always mentioned Union Jacks. See also Morrah, The Royal Family in Africa, 34.
150 ‘Durban Greets Royal Family Tumultuously’, Pretoria News, 20 March 1947.
151 RIofIA, 8/1389, Keppel-Jones, The Political Situation, 27 March 1947, 6.
152 See K.A. Heard, General Elections in South Africa, 1943–1970 (London: OUP, 1974), 34.
153 ‘The Royal Visit – and the school’, The Pretorian.
154 R. Hyam and P. Henshaw, The Lion and the Springbok: Britain and South Africa since the Boer War (Cambridge: CUP, 2003), 279.
155 Pretoria News, 28 March 1947, Editorial.
156 Principal's report, Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High School Magazine, XVII (December 1947), 1.
157 ‘School History’, Pretoriana Liber Puellarum.
158 Diocesan College Magazine, 79, 1 (April 1947), 2.
159 See Diocesan College Magazine, 79, 2 (June 1947), 19.
160 Information provided by Colin Lang, May 2014.
161 Cape Times, 21 February 1947, Editorial.