‘Welcome Home’: White English-speaking South Africans and the Royal Visit of 1947

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.