From February to April 1947, South Africa welcomed King George VI and Queen Elizabeth and their two daughters, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret. The Royal Family travelled many thousands of kilometres across the country in the specially commissioned White Train. Graham Viney’s descriptions of the tour’s highlights allow the reader to follow this royal progress and through these he brings to life both the tenor of social life and the febrile politics of the day. In vivid prose, he provides a fascinating analysis of a fractious society on the threshold of momentous change.
The Last Hurrah also captures the political controversy surrounding the tour. There was resistance, initially, from black and Indian nationalist politicians and, throughout, from Afrikaner Nationalists. Only a year later, in 1948, Smuts’s government was defeated in a general election, a victory won essentially on DF Malan’s racist ticket. But the tour had truly been a last hurrah, a show of Empire solidarity and a recognition of South Africa’s contribution to the Allied cause during the Second World War, and specifically that of Prime Minister Jan Smuts. Wherever the Royal Family went, South Africans turned out in their thousands to cheer and welcome them. This enthusiasm cut across class, language and racial divides and came close to manifesting a solidarity almost unique in a divided country.
The Last Hurrah draws on sources from far and wide, including the Royal Archives at Windsor, and includes a selection of previously unpublished photographs of the Royal Family on tour.
