75th Anniversary of Royal Family Visit to South Africa Day 100

 Day 100: 10th May 1947

Captains Diary

The Princesses in the morning visited the Engine Room & Boiler Room and then steered the ship from the Lower Steering Position.

Later the whole Royal Family visited the Transmitter Station and Forward Computer Room.

In the afternoon a photograph of the Royal Family with the ships crew was taken on the Quarter Deck.

The Royal Family dined in the Wardroom. 

HMS Diadem was detached to Plymouth at 1100 to land an urgent appendicitis case. 

A couple of postal covers, one is connected to HMS Vanguard and has the slogan in black and the other one has the slogan in red. Both covers have the slogan Maritime Mail.

What happened after the Royal Tour re the dignitaries and aircraft:

Captain/Vice Admiral Agnew

Agnew was given command of HMS Excellent, the Royal Navy's gunnery school in 1943. In 1946 he was given command of HMS Vanguard, remained aboard her after his promotion to rear-admiral in January 1947 and was in command during the Royal tour of South Africa. On conclusion of the tour he was appointed Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. In August 1947 Agnew was appointed director of personnel services at the Admiralty, where he remained until October 1949. In January 1950 he retired from the Navy at his own request and later in the year was promoted to vice-admiral on the retired list.

After retirement from the Navy he was General Secretary of the National Playing Fields Association from 1950 to 1953 and was also active in local government.

Sir William Gladstone Agnew KCVO CB DSO (2 December 1898 – 12 July 1960)

Agnew married Patricia Caroline Bewley in 1930. They had no children. At the time of his death he was living at  Alverstoke, Hampshire. 

General Smuts (May 24, 1870 - Sep 11, 1950 (age 80)

The Royal visit was intended to boost the relationship with South Africa after the Second World War, certainly in celebration of the British and South African successes supporting the crown in the fight against a Nazi Europe during WW2, which ended just two years earlier. It was also intended to consolidate the Union government of Jan Smuts ahead of the 1948 elections the following year and support his campaign. Although the Royal tour was an unprecedented success, with large scale public displays of loyalty to the crown wherever they went it did not prevent the National Party narrowly beating Jan Smut’s United Party in the 1948 elections. The National Party were no fans of British royalty (a legacy carried over by the Boer War) and South Africa’s relationship with the British Crown and the Commonwealth of Nations was to be severed in the future years, only to be re-established again in 1994. See next day a ceritain Artist Frank Beresford painted General Smuts 1947/1948.

Princess Elizabeth

Princess Elizabeth married Prince Philip on the 20th November 1947. Queen Elizabeth II was not to visit South Africa again until 1995 after the country’s re-admittance to the Commonwealth of Nations.

King George VI

Clement Atlee took over as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom following the Second World War and, overseen by King George, was responsible for ushering in the rapid transformation of the British Empire from one kingdom into a series of associated but independent states known as the Commonwealth. The segregation of India and Pakistan took place in 1947 and King George was no longer known as the Emperor of India but was instead the Head of the Commonwealth. Three independent states left the commonwealth in the next few years including Burma, now Myanmar, Palestine and the Republic of Ireland.

The intense stress and hardship of George VI’s reign severely damaged his health. The war had ruined Britain’s economy, a situation made bleaker by the dismantling of the British Empire and the beginning of the Cold War. The tensions of the post-war period exasperated King George’s health problems, which by this time included lung cancer and arteriosclerosis. The King failed to recover from an operation to remove his left lung which contained a malignant tumour and he died in his sleep on 6th February 1952, aged 56. King George’s daughter Elizabeth and her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, were part-way through a tour of Africa when she heard of his death and she returned to the UK as Queen Elizabeth II.

Throughout the war, and in particular during the bombardment of the Blitz, the Royal Family was seen to share in the sufferings of ordinary Londoners, especially after the bombing of Buckingham Palace. After his death, the King's body lay in state for three days in Westminster Hall. During this period, about 300,000 people filed past the coffin to pay their respects. Princess Elizabeth returned from Kenya on 7th February. She was proclaimed Queen the following day.

Kings Flight

If you want some more info re the Vickers Viking planes and missed the earlier references to the planes please look back at blog Day10.

Here below are the facts about the 4 planes after the Tour.

9VL245  this aircraft crashed later that year and was damaged beyond repair as per this accident report.

Tuesday 2 September 1947
Type:	Vickers Viking C.2
Operator:	Royal Air Force - RAF
Registration:	VL245
MSN:	144
First flight:	1946-07-09 (1 year 2 months)
Crew:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants:
Passengers:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants:
Total:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 11
Aircraft damage:	Damaged beyond repair
Location:	3 km (1.9 mls) S of Aberdeen-Dyce Airport (ABZ) (   United Kingdom)
Phase:	Initial climb (ICL)
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Aberdeen-Dyce Airport (ABZ/EGPD), United Kingdom
Destination airport:

Narrative:
The aircraft lost an engine while climbing out. Unable to gain height the crew force landed in a field at Newhills. The Viking was part of the King's Flight.

Sources:

» Broken Wings : Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents / James J. Halley

VL 246  /G-APOP

The plane remained in service as part of Queens flight till 1958 when it was sold to Trade Air.  A record of the Fuselage being offered to Southend Historical Aircraft Museum for preservation and BKS offered a set of wings but a lack of space meant they were refused and the fuselage was scrapped in April 1963 

VL 247

Later became  the Queen's Flight until 1958 and then  was subsequently sold to Trade Air as G-APOR.

VL248

Built for the RAF in 1947 as VL248  the workshop aircraft and was then later civilianized by Air Couriers in November 1953 and registered G-AOBY in 1955. Here it is in service as a private aircraft and registered to one Bernardo Pasquelle. It was reportedly wrecked landing back in Mexico in 1964.