South Africa - Centenary

[Arthur Radburn]

Today, 31 May 2010, is the centenary of the Union of South Africa. It's not being celebrated officially, having been overtaken by more recent constitutional events, but here's an armorial commemoration instead.

The Union was formed by the union of the British colonies of the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange Free State (a.k.a. 'Orange River Colony'), and Transvaal. King George V granted official arms to the Union by Royal Warrant on 17 September 1910.


Original 1910 rendition


New artwork, produced by the College of Arms in 1930.


The 'embellished' rendition painted by George Kruger-Gray in 1932.

Arms - Quarterly per fess wavy, First quarter Gules, a female figure representing Hope resting the dexter arm upon a rock and supporting with the sinister hand an anchor Argent; Second Quarter Or two black wildebeesten in full course at random both proper; Third Quarter Or upon an island an orange tree Vert fructed proper; Fourth Quarter Vert a trek waggon Argent.

Crest - A lion passant gardant Gules supporting with the dexter paw four staves erect alternately Argent and Azure and banded Or.

Supporters - A 'spring buck' (sic) and an oryx both proper.

Motto - Ex Unitate Vires.

Quarter I represented the Cape, II Natal, III the OFS, and IV the Transvaal. The wavy line represented the Orange River. Hope was the crest of the Cape colonial arms; the wildebeest the principal charge on Natal's colonial arms; the orange tree was no doubt inspired by the 'tree of liberty' on the OFS's old arms (and, perhaps, the augmentation granted to Lord Kitchener after the Anglo-Boer war); the 'trek waggon' was the half-tented transport wagon from the Transvaal's colonial seal. In its earlier existence as the South African Republic, the Transvaal's state arms had featured an 1830s-vintage covered ox-wagon.

The lion was descended from the Dutch, English, and Scottish heraldic beasts, the four bound staves representing the union. The supporters were indigenous animals. The motto was usually translated in English as 'union is strength'.

The arms were designed by Arthur Holland, an employee at the Government Printers in Pretoria. (I think it rather appropriate to the spirit of Union, i.e. English/Afrikaner reconciliation, that the arms were designed by a man named Holland and granted by the authorities in England. Also appropriate that he later worked at a newspaper named the Eastern Province Herald.)

No change was made to the arms when the Union became a republic on 31 May 1961, though thereafter the motto was usually translated as 'unity is strength'. Although the four provinces as such ceased to exist when the republic was reconstituted on 27 April 1994, the arms were retained as an interim measure, until the present official arms were adopted on 24 April 2000. The 1910 rendition, which had been used as the rank badge of defence force warrant officers since 1921, continued to be used as such until 2002. And the crest survives as a charge in the arms of the Bureau of Heraldry.
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Regards

Arthur