The South African
In February 2013, a team of staff from Ditsong: National Museum of Military History set aside a day to assist City of Johannesburg officials with a clean-up of the SS Mendi Memorial in Avalon Cemetery, Soweto. This was in preparation for the annual commemoration and wreath-laying ceremony to honour our fallen comrades of the First World War.
The SS Mendi sank in tragic circumstances on the morning of 21 February 1917, with a loss of 640 lives. The ship was carrying a contingent of the South African Native Labour Corps across the English Channel to France when the tragedy occurred.
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