75th Anniversary of Royal Family Visit to South Africa Day 71

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 Day 71: 11th April 1947

Programme

The Train arrived in the morning at Victoria Falls as part of a two day visit.

Victoria Falls Hotel was used for their overnight stay. They were greeted by Sir John & Lady Kennedy.

It was less than 100 years since the famous David Livingstone saw the Victoria Falls for the first time in 1855. The phenomenon of the River Zambesi about a mile wide crashing down the chasm which is Victoria Falls.

On 11th April 1947, the day dubbed by the Livingstone Mail as the ‘most important day in the history of the town,’ the Royal Party visited Livingstone, for the afternoon at least, crossing the river in the Hotel’s launch, Daphne. Flying the Royal Standard, the party sailed up to the Zambezi Boat Club on the northern bank, escorted upstream by the state barge of Barotseland Paramount Chief, Litunga Imwiko. The road from the river was resurfaced and re-named the Royal Mile in honour of the occasion. 

There are a couple of my pictures but could be 11th or 12th April  so they appear on the 12th April on my blog. But have couple of pictures from the boat trip to Northern Rhodesia.

                                                 Landing in Northern Rhodesia


Picture of Royal Family on the river crossing


Barotse state barge which accompanied the Royal Launch as it crossed the river

 Also found this link to Pathe News.

Royal Tour 1946 / 1947 - British Pathé (britishpathe.com)

No postal cover for today so using another couple from the 1st April 1947

HMS Vanguard

The ship entered the Cape Town Harbour and berthed alongside at 09.00am.

The Captain in the evening was invited to a boxing match at Woodstock Youth league and  crew went with him that were aged under 20.

Railway Information

Something different below, these are from two Southern Rhodesia railways official booklets one talking about the working time scales and the other more practical on what happens when. Just copied the info re the 11th April to give some idea of the detailed documentation. These booklets are about 30 pages each.

The first is dated 15th March with the time scales




This is the second booklet with more detail dated 22nd March







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