Abstract
The mineral revolution and the ensuing boom stimulated a remarkable migration from Scotland. A sudden rise took place in 1889, and in the 1890s, South Africa was the most popular destination for Scots apart from the United States. The first census of the Union of South Africa in 1911 revealed that there were 1,276,242 whites in South Africa. Of these 181,891 were born in the United Kingdom, over 20 per cent of them from Scotland. Scots were more likely to migrate to South Africa than the Irish or Welsh. This partly reflects the propensity of Scots to migrate; it also reveals the extent to which colonial authorities in South Africa had set out to recruit Scots for specific professions. It is perhaps no wonder that this period became one in which the various badges of Scots identity, in societies, sports and Presbyterian churches, proliferated.
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