Royal Family Arrive in South Africa 75th Anniversary of arrival in 1947 Day 18 of blog of journey

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Day 18: 17th February 1947

Captain's Diary

At 6.30am HMSAN Frigates "Goodhope", "Natal" and "Transvaal" joined escort together with 3 Ventura's and Sunderlands. At 7.50am Nigeria, Nesida and Actacon parted company. At 7.55am the 3 Frigates departed and then the aircraft left at 8.00am.

Vanguard entered Duncan Dock, Cape Town and at 8.40am ship was secured.

At 9.40am The Governor General Mr Van Zgh and Field Marshall Smuts came on board to welcome the Royal Family they left at 9.55am and the Royal Family disembarked at 10.00am. A most impressive ceremony.

Evening Gala event  I was invited to attend.(see pictures at end of this day's blog)

Photo of the arrival of HMS Vanguard and the Royal Family with the ships company.





The arrival of HMS Vanguard see the details on the front and the details on the reverse of the mounted photo.





Photos mainly from the Captains collection of the Royal Family getting ready to disembark and the arrival on South African soil.










An air letter posted on the 17th February 1947 and states as you can read on the inside of the letter the  person saw the Vanguard arrive but the post mark is East London?



There is a variety of first day covers and postmarks which I will share over the coming days when there are not many pictures to show. This cover shows the three main forms of Transport.


Another first day cover but this is a hand drawn cover


The following was purchased as being a mock up of what a First day Cover could look like.
This is a photograph.


In the evening the Royal Family attended a gala ball which the Captain was invited to as well and he reports that there were over 500 attendees.









  

Comments

  1. Leigh DMarch 1, 2022 at 8:58 PM

    The backdrop to the photos of table mountain makes them stunning. You have a great collection.

    ReplyDelete

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