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South African Historical Journal Volume 47, 2002 - Issue 1
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ARTICLES

‘The Healing Touch’: The Guild of Loyal Women of South Africa 1900–1912

ELIZABETH VAN HEYNINGEN Cape Town
&
PAT MERRETT Cape Town
Pages 24-50 | Published online: 14 Jan 2009

  • 1997 . Before her untimely death on 10 January Pat Merrett had undertaken a considerable amount of research on the Guild of Loyal Women in Pietermaritzburg. I have used part of the work which she had written up, particularly the section dealing with mourning. This article is dedicated to Pat
  • 1900 . Cape Archives [hereafter CA], A 333, Dreyer collection, Guild of Loyal Women, News-clippings, Meeting at The Hill, Cape Times?, 24 Mar. These newsclippings are usually undated except by year and the sources are rarely given although the majority appear to come from the Cape Times. The records of the Guild of Loyal Women are widely scattered. Those of the Griqualand West branch are still in the tin trunk in which they were placed when they were handed over to Kimberley Africana Library on the demise of the Guild. The Central Committee records now form part of the Long collection in the Cape Archives. Other sources exist in the State Archives, Pretoria, or remain with the Victoria League. The local newspapers often published verbatim accounts of Guild meetings. My thanks go to Andrew Thomson for the Cape Archives and other references
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, Meeting at The Hill, Cape Times?, 24 Mar.
  • Atteridge , M. P. 1930 . A Short History of the Guild of Loyal Women of South Africa (Pretoria, n.d. [C. S]), 3
  • van Heyningen , E. 1984 . “ ‘Refugees and Relief in Cape Town, 1899–1902’ ” . In Studies in the History of Cape Town 64 – 113 . Cape Town vol. 3 (D. Cammack, The Rand at War 1899–1902: The Witwatersrand and the Anglo-Boer War(London, 1990), 117–33
  • The Schreiner family were divided by the war with Olive and W.P. as pro-Boers, and their mother, Mrs Rebecca Schreiner, Theophilus, Ettie Stakesby-Lewis and their niece, Katie Stuart, as British loyalists
  • van Heyningen , E. and Schreiner's Ministry , W. P. 1898–1900 . Archives Yearbook for South African History 193 – 292 . Pretoria (1976)
  • Milner , V. 1951 . My Picture Gallery 1886–1901 151 – 2 . London
  • Ibid., 153;Dictionary of South African Biography [DSAB], vol. 1 (Pretoria, 1972), 282. For an understanding of Fairbridge's cultural context, see P. Merrington, ‘Pageantry and Primitivism: Dorothea Fairbridge and the “Aesthetics of Union”’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 21, 4 (Dec. 1995), 643–56;see also P. Merrington, ‘The Guild of Loyal Women, Freemasonry, and Memorial Architecture’ (Paper, ‘Rethinking the South African War’ Conference, University of South Africa, Pretoria, 3–5 Aug. 1998)
  • Reidi , E. 1899–1914 . ‘Imperial Women in Victorian Britain: The Victoria League’ (PhD thesis, University of St Andrews, 1998), 21
  • Ibid., 6–7, 27;Merrington, ‘The Guild of Loyal Women’, 6
  • 1900 . Cape Times CA, A 333, Address to Milner, 20 Apr. See also J. Bush, Edwardian Ladies and Imperial Power (Leicester, 2000), 48, on Milner's influence in the formation of the Victoria League
  • 1900 . See, for example, the resolution passed by the Victoria West branch: ‘That this Guild desires to place on record its high regard for His Excellency, Sir Alfred Milner for the wisdom, insight, and self-control that he has invariably exhibited in fulfilment of the duties of his high office at a most trying time in South African history.’ Cape Times, 12 June. The Guild also established a Milner Scholarship in his name ‘to express their gratitude for his support’: CA, A 333, ‘A Milner Memorial’, Cape Times?, 1906
  • Burton , A. 1994 . Burdens of History: British Feminists, Indian Women and Imperial Culture, 1865–1915 1 Chapel Hill
  • Ibid., 33
  • Ibid., 42
  • Ibid., 4–7.
  • Bush . Edwardian Ladies and Imperial Power 45, 48, 130
  • Thompson , A. 2000 . Imperial Britain: The Empire in British Politics, c. 1880–1932 58 Harlow
  • Ibid., 14, 28
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, ‘Women and the War’, Cape Times, c. 1 Mar.;see also A 333, ‘Loyal Women’, Cape Argus?, c. Dec. 1900;Leader on Guild of Loyal Women, Cape Times?, 18 Jan. 1905
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, Meeting at The Hill, Cape Times?, 24 Mar.
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, ‘Guild of Loyal Women’, Cape Times, 22 Apr.
  • 1906 . CA, A 333, Letter, Z. Stamper, Honorary Federal Secretary, Cape Times?, c. 14 July;Reidi, ‘Imperialist Women’, 74. Reidi points out that the women of the Victoria League were political animals. See also Christopher Hill's comment that ‘Nothing is more political than the appeal to patriotism’: C. Hill, ‘History and Patriotism’, in R. Samuel, ed., Patriotism:. The Making and Unmaking of British National Identity, vol. I, History and Politics (London, 1989), 3
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, Cape Times, Feb.
  • 1900 . CA A 333, Meeting at Knysna, Cape Times?
  • 1900 . Cape Times, 12 June. Milner was under no such illusions: South African politics separated on the basic principle of loyalty to Great Britain, he observed to the Guild. Natal Witness, 27 Aug. 1902
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, ‘Loyal Women's Guild’, Cape Argus, 7 June;Cape Times, 12, 15, 18 June 1900
  • Kimberley African Library [KAL] . 1900 . Guild of Loyal Women, minute book no 1, 24 July
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, ‘Loyal Women's Guild’, Cape Times, 13 July
  • 1900 . Natal Witness, 15, 27 Nov.;Atteridge, A Short History of the Guild, 6
  • Bush . Edwardian Ladies 44
  • Reidi . ‘Imperialist Women’, 157; H. Robertson, ‘The Enemy Within’, The Citizen's Weekly (11 Nov. 2001), c7. My thanks go to Hugh Robertson for this information on the I.O.D.E. The historian of the I.O.D.E. is K. Pickles, Female Imperialism and National Identity: Imperial Order, Daughters of the Empire (Manchester, 2002)
  • 1900 . CA A 333, Letter from D. Fairbridge to the Editor, Cape Times?, c.23 May;Reidi, ‘Imperialist Women’, 158–63. The full name was Guild of Loyal Women of South Africa, Daughters of the Empire
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, Letter from Margaret Paulson Murray, Cape Times?, 23 May
  • KAL . 1900 . Guild of Loyal Women, minute book no 1, 26 Oct.
  • 1901 . Natal Witness, 12 Nov., 5
  • 1902 . Natal Witness, 20 Jan., 6
  • 1904 . CA, A 333, Cape Colony annual meeting, Cape Times?, c.7 Jan.
  • 1902 . Natal Witness, 17, 18 Feb., 27 Mar. 1902, 27 Aug. 1902;CA, A 2065, Central Graves Committee, minute book, 17 May 1901. Various organisations such as De Beers in Kimberley and Messrs Pepworth and Reid in Natal donated trees for the cemeteries. KAL, Guild of Loyal Women, minute book no 1, 3 Apr. 1901;Natal Witness, 17 Feb. 1902
  • 2065 . CA, A, Central Graves Committee, minute book, 3 June 1902
  • 1909 . CA, A 333, Central Graves Committee final report, Cape Times?, c.30 Mar.
  • KAL . 1900 . Guild of Loyal Women, minute book no 1, 30 Nov.
  • 1900 . Ibid., 17 Sep.
  • 1900 . Ibid., 30 Nov.
  • 1909 . CA, A 333, Central Graves Committee final report, Cape Times?, c.30 Mar.
  • KAL . 1901 . Guild of Loyal Women, minute book no 1, 1 Apr.
  • 1909 . CA, A 333, Central Graves Committee final report, Cape Times?, c.30 Mar.
  • KAL . 1900 . Guild of Loyal Women, minute book no 1, 17 Sep.
  • 1909 . CA, A 333, Central Graves Committee final report. Cape Times?, c.30 Mar.
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, London meeting, Cape Times?, 4 Dec.
  • KAL . 1900 . Guild of Loyal Women, minute book no 1, 30 Nov.
  • Davey , A. M. 1978 . The British Pro-Boers 1877–1902 97 – 9 . Cape Town (V. Cohen, ‘The Public Career of Theophilus Lyndall Schreiner: A Study of the Causes He Espoused’ (BA Hons thesis, University of Cape Town, 1980), 51
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, Mrs Stuart's parting address. Cape Times?, c.31 Dec. Stuart was referring to the activities of pro-Boer women in Cape Town and the Western Cape, led by Mrs Marie Koopmans-de Wet
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, Mrs Stuart's reportback meeting, Cape Argus, Nov.
  • Bush . Edwardian Ladies 45
  • Milner . My Picture Gallery 237;Bush, Edwardian Ladies, 48
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, London meeting, Cape Times?, 4 Dec.
  • Reidi . ‘Imperial Women’, 234
  • 1902 . Natal Witness, 20 June, 4
  • Reidi . ‘Imperial Women’ 70
  • 2065 . CA, A, Central Graves Committee, minute book, 28 Nov. 1901
  • 1901 . Ibid., 3 May
  • 1909 . CA, A 333, Central Graves Committee final report, Cape Times?, c.30 Mar.
  • 1903 . CA, A 333, Letter of Mary H. Currey, Cape Times?, 9 Sep.
  • 1902 . Natal Witness, 28 Feb., 5
  • 1906 . CA, A 333, Federal conference, Cape Times?;Central Graves Committee final report, Cape Times?, c.30 Mar. 1909
  • KAL . 1904 . Guild of Loyal Women, minute book no 1, 27 July;CA, A 2065, Central Graves Committee, minute book, 11 Mar. 1904;A 333, Central Graves Committee final report, Cape Times?, c.30 Mar. 1909. The War Office appears to have taken full credit for these crosses. See, for instance, P. Longworth, The Unending Vigil: A History of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission 1917–1967 (London, 1967), xxi. This part of the Currey report appears to have applied only to the Cape Colony, it is not entirely clear from the report what was done in the other colonies
  • This information was subsequently passed onto the British War Graves Committee of the National Monuments Commission. The registers themselves are scattered, some in private hands in Kimberley. Personal communication, Fiona Barbour, McGregor Museum, Kimberley
  • 1906 . CA, A 333, Federal conference, Cape Times?
  • 2065 . CA, A, Central Graves Committee, minute book, 9 Jan. 1902;A 333, Second annual report on soldiers' graves in Woodstock military cemetery, Cape Times?, c.22 Sep. 1902
  • 1909 . CA, A 333, Central Graves Committee final report. Cape Times, c.30 Mar.
  • Winter , J. 1995 . “ 2 ” . In Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning: The Great War in European Cultural History Cambridge (See particularly the introduction and chapter. One of the aims of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was to bring similar closure to the grieving of the families of the victims of apartheid
  • Longworth . The Unending Vigil xxi (Introduction by Edmund Blunden). Fabian Ware, founder of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, was in South Africa during and after the South African War, and was probably familiar with the Guild's work. Thompson, Imperial Britain, 65
  • 1902 . Natal Witness, 19.Nov., 6
  • 1903 . Natal Witness, 15 Jan., 6;A 333, Second annual report of soldiers' graves in Woodstock Military Cemetery, Cape Times?, c.22 Sep. 1902
  • This social distinction was abandoned during the carnage of the Great War
  • 1902 . Natal Witness 20 June, 4. In fact this speech appears to have been made by Dr Hans Sauer. The views expressed prefigure the use of nature in First World War memorials and cemeteries discussed in G. Mosse, Fallen Soldiers: Reshaping the Memory of the World Wars (New York, 1990), ch. 6
  • 1912 . CA, A 333 Federal Council final meeting, Cape Times?, c.4 Nov.
  • Atteridge, A Short History of the Guild, 4
  • 1900 . Cape Times, 6 July
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, Colesberg meeting, Cape Times, 15 June
  • 1904 . CA, A 333, Cape Colony annual meeting, Cape Times?, c.7 Jan.
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, Stellenbosch meeting, Cape Times?
  • 1901 . Transvaal Archives [TA], GOV 577, PS 254/01, Margaret Arderne to Lord Milner, 28 Aug.
  • KAL . 1901 . Guild of Loyal Women, minute book, 6 Nov.
  • KAL . 1901 . Guild of Loyal Women, minute book no I, 9 Aug., 27 Sep.
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, First general quarterly meeting, Cape Times, 13 July
  • Headlam , C. Milner Papers: South Africa, 1899–1907 vol. 2 (London, 1933), 232. Saul Dubow argues that Milner's definition of loyalty altered after the fiasco of the attempt to suspend the Cape constitution, accepting that ‘the true Imperialist is also the best South African’: S. Dubow, ‘Colonial Nationalism, the Milner Kindergarten and the Rrise of “South Africanism”, 1902–10’ History Workshop Journal (1977), 56–7. It is not clear how far the Guild was reflecting Milner's thinking, but it is likely that members were responding to ideas which were increasingly widespread in South Africa at the time
  • 1905 . CA, A 333, ‘At Home in Cape Town’, Cape Argus?, c.Jan., ‘Loyal Women's Guild’, Cape Times?, c. 18 Jan. 1905
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, First general quarterly meeting. Cape Times, 13 July
  • 1904 . CA, A 333, ‘Loyal Women's Guild’, Cape Times?
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, Letter from Violet Markham, Cape Times?, c. end
  • 1901 . CA, A 333, Caledon meeting, Cape Times?, c.2 Oct.
  • 1909 . CA, A 333, Annual congress, East London, Cape Times?, c.18 Jan.
  • 1909 . CA, A 333, Central Graves Committee final report, Cape Times?, c.30 Mar. See Dubow, ‘Colonial Nationalism’ 64, for the influence of the colonial landscape on the thinking of Lionel Curtis and Philip Kerr
  • 1903 . CA, A 333, ‘Patriotic Poem’, Cape Times?. The winner was Miss Ethel M. Hewitt of London, and the seventy poems were judged by Rudyard Kipling and Lady Gill
  • 1906 . CA, A 333, Meeting on the South African Women's Industrial Union, Cape Times?
  • 1905 . CA, A 333, At Home in Cape Town, Cape Argus?, c. 18 Jan.
  • 1907 . CA, A 333, Letter from Helena Kingsley, President, Guild of Loyal Women and Helen Crewe, Secretary, Cape Argus?, c.Jan.
  • 1906 . CA, A 333, Fourth federal conference, Cape Times, 4 July. For a development of this theme, see A Davin, ‘Imperialism and Motherhood’ in Samuel, Patriotism, 203–36
  • 1902 . CA, A 333, ‘The Guild of Loyal Women’, Cape Times?, c.16 Apr.
  • 1906 . CA, A 333, Dr Kolbe's address, Cape Times?
  • 1911 . CA, A 333, Unidentified extract, Cape Times?
  • Walker , C. 1979 . The Women's Suffrage Movement in South Africa Cape Town
  • Bickford-Smith , V. , van Heyningen , E. and Worden , N. 2000 . Cape Town in the Twentieth Century 31 – 32 . Cape Town
  • 1901 . Natal Witness, 19 Apr., 7;27 Apr. 1901, 5;9 May 1901, 4;11 May 1901, 5;16May 1901, 5;31 Jan. 1902, 6;15 May 1902, 5;1 July 1902, 5;14 Feb. 1902, 7. 12 Mar. 1903, 5
  • 1902 . Natal Witness, 19 June, 6;KAL, Guild of Loyal Women, minute book no 1, 29 Mar. 1909, 113, 7 Sep. 1903, 149, 29 Mar. 1909, 113
  • Bush . Edwardian Ladies 90;Natal Witness, 14 Jan. 1903, 6;4 Mar. 1903, 6
  • 1902 . Natal Witness, 27 Sep., 5
  • 1904 . CA, A 333, Cape Colony annual meeting, Cape Times?, c.7 Jan., ‘Women's Interests’, Cape Times, 6 July 1906;Natal Witness, 18 Apr. 1902, 4
  • 1902 . CA, A 333, Open letter from Margaret Arderne et al, Cape Times? c.31 May;Reidi, ‘Imperial Women’, 87, 96
  • 1904 . CA, A 333, Cape Colony annual conference, Cape Times?;Natal Witness, 19 Nov. 1902, 6
  • 1904 . CA, A 333, ‘Loyal Women's Guild’, Cape Times?;Cape Colony annual conference, Cape Times, c.18 }an. 1903
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, Paarl meeting, Cape Argus?, 7 June
  • 1904 . CA, A 333, Cape Colony annual conference, Cape Times?;Natal Witness, 12Jan. 1904, 5;A 333, Cape Colony annual conference, Cape Times?, c.18 Jan. 1905
  • 1907 . CA, A 333, Cape Colony annual conference, Cape Times?;Cape Colony annual conference, Cape Times?, c. 18 Jan. 1909;Cape Colony annual conference, Cape Times?, 1910, ‘Women's Interests’, Cape Times?, 19 Jan. 1911;Atteridge, A Short History of the Guild, 13
  • 1901 . Natal Witness, 20 December, 5. The subjects were shatteringly dull and it's hardly surprising that children did not show great interest in the competition. Seniors could write on the products and industries of Canada and its part in imperial politics, and juniors on Canada's physical features, industries and products. Natal Witness, 16 June 1903, 4. Almost as bad were the essays for a prize presented by Arthur Balfour on the ideal of government in the British Empire. CA, A 333, Guild essay, Cape Times?, July 1904. For a summary of these attitudes see R. Samuel, ‘Introduction: Exciting to be English’ in Samuel, Patriotism, xx
  • KAL . 1902 . Guild of Loyal Women, minute book, 6 June, 87
  • 1903 . CA, A 333, Mrs Fawcett's visit, Cape Times?
  • 1902 . Natal Witness, 13 August, 6
  • 1904 . TA, GOV 62, PS 87/04, Victoria League to the Colonial Office, 10 Apr.;GOV 795, PS 87/1904, 8, Telegram, Ikona to Nurshing, Pretoria, 12 May 1904;Natal Witness, 7 May 1904, 5;Natal Witness, 18 Aug. 1904, 5, 6 Apr. 1906, 3;Atteridge, A Short History of the Guild, 8
  • 1903 . CA, A 333, Third annual report, Cape Times?;Cape Colony annual conference, Cape Times?, c.18 Jan. 1903, Cape Colony annual conference, Cape Times?, 18 and 19 Jan. 1905
  • 1911 . CA, A 333, Sixth annual conference, Cape Times?
  • 1905 . Natal Witness, 17 July, 5, 21 Nov. 1905, 5;KAL, Guild of Loyal Women, minute book no 2, 29 Sep. 1905, 2;KAL, Guild of Loyal Women, Art and Industrial Exhibition Catalogue (Kimberley, 1906)
  • 1906 . CA, A 333, ‘Home Industries’, Cape Times?;Guild of Loyal Women (Pretoria branch), Exhibition of Women's Work catalogue, (Pretoria, 1906)
  • 1906 . CA, A 333, Article on the South African Women's Industrial Union, Cape Times?, Seventh annual conference, Cape Times?, 1907, ‘Women's Interests’, Cape Times? 1907
  • 1906 . CA, A 333, ‘Women's Interests’, Cape Times?, ‘Women's Interests’, Cape Times?, 6 July 1906
  • Atteridge, A Short History of the Guild, 3
  • 1902 . Natal Witness, 27 Aug., 5;KAL, Guild of Loyal Women, minute book no 1, 3 Dec. 1902, 106. See also Atteridge, A Short History of Guild, 7, on the conflict over the name, written from the point of view of the diehard loyalists
  • 1906 . CA, A 333, ‘Women's Interests’, Cape Times, 6 July
  • 1911 . CA, A 333, ‘Women's Interests’, Cape Times
  • 1911 . CA, A 333, Quarterly meeting of the Guild of Loyal Women, Cape Times?. Unfortunately the Guild records are silent on opposing notions of loyalism. Publicly the Guild was stronger on rhetoric than on analysis and there was a tendency in the records to brush out any controversy
  • 1910 . CA, A 333 ‘Guild of Loyal Women’, Cape Times? c.7 Nov., ‘Women's Interest’, Cape Times?, 1911, ‘Guild of Loyal Women’, Cape Times? 1911
  • 1911 . CA, A 333, ‘Guild of Loyal Women,’ Cape Times?, c.Mar.
  • KAL . 1911 . Guild of Loyal Women, minute book no 2, 30 Mar., 135;CA, A 333, Cape Colony final meeting, Cape Times, 24 Jan. 1912. The South African Victoria League was independent of the British League
  • 1912 . CA, A 333, ‘Women's Interests’, Cape Times?
  • 1912 . CA, A 333, Federal Council final meetng, Cape Times?, c.4 Nov.
  • 1912 . Ibid., Cape Times. There was still a branch in Nigel, Transvaal in the 1950s. Personal communication, Dr Kay McCormick
  • Ibid.
  • Thompson , A. S. 1870–1939 . ‘The Languages of Loyalism in Southern Africa, c.’ (Paper, British World Conference, University of Cape Town, Jan. 2002), 2
  • Ibid., 17;Dubow, ‘Colonial Nationalism’, 76
  • 1900 . CA, A 333, Letter from Cape Colonist, Cape Times?, c.l 1 July

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