Passing of SAMHS CT members Peter Beighton and Jochen Mahncke
We record with regret the passing of fellow members Peter Beighton and Jochen Mahncke.
Vandalisation of War Memorials
The increase in vandalisation of War Memorials raises the question of how do we save something we can’t protect?
The Back Up Ukraine Project’s (see https://www.google.com/search?q=backup+ukraine+case+study&rlz=1C1GCEA _enZA1047ZA1047&oq=Back+&aqs=chrome.1.69i57j69i59l2j0i131i433i512j0i4 33i512j46i131i433i512j46i131i340i433i512l2j46i175i199i512j0i512.6607j0j15&s ourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 ) answer is that “22 million Ukrainian phones were turned into 3D scanners”.
See eGSSA (the online branch of the Genealogical Society of South Africa) https://graves-at-eggsa.org/main.php?g2_itemId=146885 for another example of what can be done.
I propose that we back up South African War Memorials for posting on the SAMHS website.
We know what is happening. The next step could be a RPC discussion to exchange ideas on so what and now what.
Please send any questions, comments or suggestions on this issue to me at culturev@lantic.net.
SAMHSEC 12 June 2023 meeting
Dylan Fourie told us about Louis Zamperini, who was an American Olympian at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. During World War 2, Zamperini served as bomber crew in the Pacific Theatre. He and another crew member survived 47 days in a life raft before being captured by the Japanese. His 2 years as a Prisoner of War left him with severe PTSD. After the war, he became a motivational speaker and evangelist.
Dylan’s presentation is in SAMHS' Zoom library.
SAMHSEC RPC 26 June 2023
In session 1, Barbara Ann Kinghorn presented an illustrated talk titled “Another Coronation” about the Coronation of King Charles III and Queen Camilla on 6 May 2023.
“On Tuesday, 2ND of June 1953, my father was a member of the South African Contingent marching in the Coronation Procession of Queen Elizabeth II. A whole week later, we went to the cinema to watch it unfold in a black and white newsreel.
Not quite 2 months ago, I watched another coronation in the comfort of my home, live streaming the historic crowning of King Charles III on my laptop. My two experiences, like the coronations themselves, were the same, but also very different.
Much of the Coronation Ceremony (the sacred religious crowning ritual for reigning monarchs) has remained unchanged since the 8th century and the military have always been an integral part of it – not just for the pomp and pageantry, but also for the protection of the monarch.
For example, the Coronation of William I on Christmas Day 1066 was a bloody affair, as his Norman soldiers put down a wrongly perceived insurrection by Saxons inside and outside Westminster Abbey. This meant that the tense ceremony ended in a riot with bloodletting and looting.
The British Coronation Ceremony is a formal confirmation of the monarch’s role as the Head of State (and the Commonwealth) and the Church of England (“Defender of the Faith and Supreme Governor of the Church of England” (F.D. Fidei Defensor), titles which date back to the reign of King Henry VIII
There have been 39 coronations at Westminster Abbey since King William I’s in 1066 – each of which followed the same hallowed rituals, but each coronation’s differences vividly portray the spirit of its time.
The planning of Charles’ Coronation began about 5 years ago, code-named Operation Golden Orb and led by the Earl Marshall, the 18th Duke of Norfolk, whose inherited role is to oversee and advise Buckingham Palace on all major ceremonial occasions.
Charles himself participated in the planning, intending to show the monarchy and its ancient rites as still relevant in modern, multi-cultural Britain and to slim down the institution. His Coronation reflected his intentions clearly: the service was a shorter, less extravagant ceremony than the three-hour service that installed Elizabeth II and his processions were a fraction of the size of his mother’s.
Now here’s the thing: there is no legal requirement for a coronation. Indeed, most European monarchies have done away with coronation ceremonies altogether. The fact is that Charles automatically became King on 8 September 2022, immediately upon the death of his mother, Elizabeth II, since the throne can never be vacant.
Within 24 hours of the death of a sovereign, an Accession Council is usually convened at St James’s Palace in London. In the case of King Charles III, it was delayed, allowing him to return from Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where the Queen had passed away. So, two days later he was officially proclaimed the United Kingdom’s Monarch in an Accession Ceremony arranged by the Earl Marshal and broadcast for the first time on television.
As the Prince of Wales, the future King Charles broke with tradition when he opted to attend university after his A-Levels, instead of joining the military straight away. In October 1967 he was admitted to Trinity College where he read Archaeology & Anthropology and then History. In 1970 he became the first British Royal to earn a university degree.
While still a student, he commenced flying training and was awarded RAF wings.
King Charles then attended a course at the Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC) Dartmouth before following in the footsteps of his father, grandfather and two great-grandfathers and joining the Royal Navy. He served on the guided-missile destroyer HMS Norfolk, then on HMS Minerva and HMS Jupiter and learned to fly helicopters.
In 1974, King Charles also received commando training with the Royal Marines. He ended his military career as Officer Commanding of the minesweeper HMS Bronington in 1976. Now, as the reigning monarch, he serves as the Commander-in-Chief of the British Armed Forces.
For his Coronation, Charles chose not to wear military uniform. Both the Princess Royal and Prince William appeared in full military uniform.
The King’s Procession, consisting of just under 200 members of the Armed Forces, set out at 10.20 am from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey where the Coronation Service was conducted by the Church of England’s spiritual leader, the Most Reverend Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury.
After the crown was placed on the King's head, a fanfare sounded, the bells of Westminster Abbey rang for two minutes and gun salutes were fired from the Horse Guards Parade, the Tower of London and saluting stations across the nation and from warships at sea.
After the service, The King and Queen’s Coronation Procession re-traced the King’s Procession route, turning at Trafalgar Square and back to Buckingham Palace in the 260-year-old Gold State Coach. The route was lined by the Armed Forces, Standard Bearers of the Royal British Legion, uniformed Civilian Services and Youth Organisations.
This massive military ceremonial operation, the largest of its kind for a generation, was rehearsed for six weeks and to ensure that the 20 bands were perfectly synchronised at 108 paces per minute.
In a coronation first, the newly crowned King and Queen received a Royal Salute and three cheers in the Garden of Buckingham Palace from the Armed Forces who had taken part in the Processions.
The King and The Queen then appeared on the Buckingham Palace Balcony with members of the Royal Family to watch the flypast - scaled down owing to poor weather - of helicopters and the Red Arrows Display Team, thus concluding the ceremonial events in which nearly 4,000 personnel had displayed the best of His Majesty’s Armed Forces.
The cost of the operation, rumoured to have been about £100 000 000, raises the question: will there be ANOTHER CORONATION?
In session 2, Barbara Ann told us about the book “Souvenir of the Commonwealth and Empire Contingents at the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II June 2nd 1953”.
“The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II as sovereign of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Pakistan, and Ceylon took place on Tuesday, June 2, 1953, at Westminster Abbey.
The Coronation Procession stretched for more than three kilometres and was designed so that The Queen and her procession could be seen by as many people as possible. The 7.2-kilometre route took the participants two hours to complete.
And my father was part of it. As a member of the South African Contingent, my father, Lieutenant T. R. Vanston, was one of 10 South African Air Force officers marching in London on that rainy day. He received the Souvenir Book from the British Empire Service League Empire Headquarters.
The South African Contingent, commanded by Brigadier S. A. Melville, OBE, consisted of 67 officers and 72 other ranks, representing ex-Servicemen, the South African Air Force, the Navy and Marines, the Permanent Force Army, and Rifle Commandos.
They arrived at Tilbury Docks aboard the Durban Castle on 15 May 1953. The Stirling Castle sailed from Southampton on 11 June and the Warwick Castle on 17 June from King George V Docks, to bring them home.
The Souvenir Book includes nominal rolls of all the contingents, with special recognition of VCs present, messages from the organisers, reports, statistics, the Queen’s Oath and radio broadcast and a poem written by the Very Rev W R Matthews, Dean of St Paul’s, in praise of the new Queen, called A June Day.
And many, many photos of memories to cherish -of the Queen, the service in Westminster Abbey, procession rehearsals, the procession and the Fleet Review, including a photograph of the Queen at the Review, arrayed in her finery, ballgown, fur coat and a doek over her tiara!”
SAMHSEC 10 July 2023 meeting
Helmoed Heitman will tell us about the German Navy capital ships in WW2. The fates of Graf Spee, Bismarck and Scharnhorst are well known, but the actions and fates of the other capital ships less so and there are some interesting bits of information even about the better known ships.
RPC 31 July 2023
SAMHSEC Requests the Pleasure of your Company to talk about military history on 31 July 2023.
Session 1
In session 1, Franco Cilliers will tell us about Joseph Beyrle. He is the only American soldier known to have served in combat in both the United States Army and the Soviet Red Army during WW2.
31 July 2023 at 1930 South African time
Session 2
This session is available for you to share a military history related book. Please contact André at andrecrozier@gmail.com if you want to use this opportunity.
31 July 2023 at 2015 South African time
SAMHSEC