By Dr Christopher Board, OBE, FRPSL Chairman, Transvaal Study Circle, UK.

Introduction

The Vereeniging peace treaty which ended the second Anglo-Boer War on 31 May 1902 envisaged self-government for the two new colonies, formerly Boer republics. When all the four states had achieved full self-government a National Convention was called to draft a constitution for the closer union of Cape Colony, Natal, Transvaal and Orange River Colony. The South Africa Act of 1909 required amongst other things the amalgamation of four postal authorities. As the colonial delegates passed through Cape Town to attend the legislative processes about to take place in the Westminster Parliament, one Richard Musgrave suggested that a commemorative postage stamp be produced. His design was preserved in a file devoted to the entire topic and, although rejected, appeared later as a picture on a post card, shown in figure 1.

Selecting a Design

Evidently the four postal administrations took this topic on board and made it one of those discussed at a conference of the four Postmasters General in February 1910. Their task was to select a design for such a stamp. It would be the first one specifically created for the new South African state. It has iconic status deriving from its former colonial ancestry. Today it tells of a political settlement by which those who ruled the present territory of South Africa unified a state which is unique in Africa.

Originally the two most influential PMGs presented contrasting ideas: the Transvaal wanted a sixpenny stamp and the Cape Colony wanted a penny stamp. The former was to maximise revenue from collectors, the latter would be much more widely used for ordinary letters in southern Africa.

After discussion a short list of two favoured designs was put forward. One was based on another Transvaal proposal for a penny stamp, the other, proposed by the Cape Colony and a rather better drawn design, emphasised the ‘Mother City’ of South Africa, Cape Town. The Postmasters General compromised on a single twopence-halfpenny, engraved design bearing motifs of each colony and the monarch’s head in royal blue, but they were unable to do more than improve one of the Transvaal designs and to present a preferred Cape design. Their work completed, the decision on which design to use for the new stamp, either the Transvaal modified design marked ‘1’ on fig. 2 or the Cape design marked ‘2’, was left to the politicians to sort out.

The Poilitical Choice

Political rivalry between Merriman and Botha, respectively Premiers of the Cape and Transvaal, over who would be selected as the first Union Premier from 31 May 1910, was mirrored in the arguments over the choice of the Union stamp design. As late as April 1910, Merriman refused to accept the Transvaal design despite the shortcomings of the Cape design. As Botha had engineered wide support throughout South Africa and was the British Government’s favoured candidate, he could afford to disregard Merriman’s telegrams and quietly prepare De La Rue in London with a new essay based on the Transvaal modified design.

Was it Wilkinson’s Design ?

It has always been acknowledged that the ‘Transvaal’ design for the commemorative stamp of 1910 was the work of Henry Straughan Wilkinson who was then the Distributor of Stamps for the Transvaal. This has never been seriously challenged, but doubts remained until the Treasury Archives in Pretoria revealed the full story more than 25 years ago. There is no doubt at all that Wilkinson’s position required him to prepare the stamp for issue at the most auspicious moment to mark the creation of the Union. However, we now know that he almost certainly sketched his design of the King’s head surrounded by heraldic symbols of the four constituent colonies and had it fair drawn by someone else who was more expert in illustration. Wilkinson’s design is for a penny stamp as it was produced well before the Transvaal Cabinet opted for a 6d duty. From other evidence it is clear that Wilkinson himself was not able to do more than a rough sketch. There is in the files another design we know Wilkinson did create for a general stamp for the British Empire. Shown in fig 3, its style is crude in comparison with that of the more capable artist.

A photograph of Wilkinson’s original design, possibly the ‘Large size with Mr Hull’ referred to for item 3 in fig 2, has now been known for over half a century. A photograph of the original hand-drawn design on card measuring 12.6 x 15cm was first illustrated on page 159 in the South African Philatelist in November 1957. A philatelist in East London who knew of Wilkinson who died in 1953, had a photograph of his design signed by Wilkinson himself. Interestingly, Wilkinson’s obituary in the Daily Dispatch on 26 March 1953 did not mention his role as the designer of the Union’s first postage stamp. We now know that Wilkinson’s redrawn sketch was the source of the example considered by the Postmasters General in February 1910. As a result of their discussions a modified Transvaal design was put forward, shown as ‘1’ fig 2,

This compromise design was redrawn by a Mr Holland who worked for the Government Printer in Pretoria and he was paid an honorarium for having done that. It seems likely that he had also fairdrawn Wilkinson’s original 1d design. The Alternative Designs At this stage, other contenders for the choice of the Union’s first stamp must be mentioned. Aware of the role of the mother colony, the Cape Post Office produced several possible designs for a commemorative stamp. It is clear that these were looked at during the conference of Postmasters General in February 1910. Tony Chilton illustrated many of them as far back as 1985, after we had seen them in the Transvaal (now National ) Archives. Some of the essays prepared by the Cape Post Office show the Victoria Falls as well as Table Mountain. Fig.4 was sketched in green with the King’s head, values and date in red, perforations were in black. The Cape design preferred by the Postmasters General in fig.2 is a fairdrawn adaptation of this kind of essay adding the crown above King Edward’s profile , without the Victoria Falls as they were outside the territorial scope of the new Union. The Transvaal had originally produced rough sketches for a stamp at 6d with Table Mountain and devices for each of the four colonies. The Conference did not express a preference but left it to the Governments to decide on a design. Wilkinson’s design, was modified by the Transvaal to item ‘1’ in fig 2 and submitted to expert opinion in the Government Printing Office.

Qualified approval was obtained. In early April the Prime Ministers of the Cape and Transvaal exchanged a series of telegrams criticising each other’s designs and returning to the question of the denomination. The Transvaal modified its design yet again reinstating the names of the provinces below their arms. The Cape submitted a new arms design of its own, again by Sturman, as shown in fig 5

This was apparently not seen by the Transvaal Government, as they had already made up their mind to go with their own design, once the Governor General had offered General Botha the premiership of the Union. Both of the fairdrawn designs by Sturman, who worked in the Cape Post Office, have survived. The first was regarded as the preferred Cape design, but without Victoria Falls, (fig. 2), the second was devised probably to meet the Transvaal’s wish for the arms of the four colonies to appear as shown in fig 5

Placing the Printing Order

True to their intentions the Transvaal government went ahead with their modified design in late June 1910 requisitioning De La Rue for 20 million of the now classic stamp. They asked that a consignment be delivered to Pretoria by the beginning of October 1910 and unusually prepared publicity for it, where past new issues of postal matter had been announced only in postal circulars and rarely in newspapers or posters. Riding on the crest of a wave of enthusiasm for Union the Transvaal Government sought to sell the stamp to collectors, despite challenges from a minister in the Cape Government arguing that commemorative stamps such as this were disapproved of by the Universal Postal Union.

Making of Printing Plates

Once it was confirmed that Botha was to be the Union’s Prime Minister on 21 May, the final telegraphic instruction on 23 May to De La Rue in London allowed them to begin work on preparing printing plates to the design in fig 6. It is highly likely that De La Rue had asked one of their engravers to produce a head die of King George V soon after the death of his father, King Edward VII. Apparently based on the same photograph of the King when Prince of Wales, the likeness had already been used for the lowest value in the Canadian set of stamps celebrating the tercentenary of Quebec in 1907.

All the die proofs made show the King in a military uniform but wearing an erminearound his shoulders. Perhaps this was to speed up the completion of the die. The stamp with its new portrait of the King was approved by him on 13 July 1910 and reported to Pretoria by telegraph.

In London the High Commissioner struggled to reconcile the requirements of the Union Government and the advice of the printers. In the end the Union opted for the more expensive engraved stamp which would take longer to print. Notwithstanding this a sufficient supply could be printed to arrive in Pretoria by the beginning of October when the Post Office began its publicity for the stamp.

Unaccountably the printers offered two alternatives to the design carefully prepared by the Transvaal Government and sent to London by the first Union Government. The two similar designs have been known for some decades. Copies were kept by De La Rue, but the official original proofs in blue are kept by the Post Office Museum in Pretoria. They were used in a commemorative miniature sheet for ELPEX in 1976 (shown in fig. 7) and have been exhibited at National Philatelic Exhibitions in South Africa since they were first seen at Pretoria in 1964. There they occupied pole position in an exhibition of a collection of essays and proofs in the Post Office archives. These were well documented by Raubenheimer in Africana Notes and News in 1966.

Colour Trials and Printing

Once the engraved dies had passed muster with the High Commissioner in London, colour trials were produced in shades of blue and one was chosen on 19 July. Printing began on 25 August and continued until nearly the twenty million mark had been reached on 17 November. It appears that the catalogued variety of the paper on which the stamp is printed is blued was first noticed among those which were sent for sale by the High Commissioner’s Office in London. It seems likely that a larger proportion of stamps sold to the public by the High Commission in London were of the deep blue variety. This may have been due to the haste to print them close to the date of issue. Such variations were only to be expected as the printing plates were cleaned by hand, as the printers confirmed. It appears that stamps printed on the blued paper are rarer than those on white or whiter paper. Despite much effort to identify constant flaws in the plates, no convincing ones have come to light. Only errors attributable to problems with inking or cleaning plates have been discovered.

The Use of The Stamp

Once issued on 4th November 1910, the use of this stamp was popular.

First-day covers are not all that rare, with well over a hundred different Post Office cancellations having been recorded. While many of these are from the cities and large towns there are also many first day uses from small settlements and tiny post offices throughout the Union. It is paradoxically more difficult to find instances of the stamp used to pay the correct postage rates.

Typical examples are half-ounce letters to ‘foreign’ destinations, or two commemoratives prepaying the basic letter rate of a penny with fourpence registration fee on a plain envelope. Philatelic usage, as was predicted by the Transvaal, was widespread. Many citizens bought a single stamp as a souvenir, with the result that it was recorded in Pietermaritzburg that the post office ran out of change for silver tickeys (3d) and had to give halfpenny stamps instead of coin.

Once the euphoria about the creation of the Union had faded, it became obvious that with the huge stocks of the commemorative stamp and large reserves of the former colonial two-pennyhalfpenny stamps it would not be possible to sell the entire stock before the new definitive King’s Head stamps of the same denomination were introduced in 1913. The annual audits of stocks in Pretoria reveal that about 17 million were still in reserve in early 1911, and 13,6 million in June 1914. Virtually none were required after that. Nearly 15 million commemorative stamps were officially destroyed in 1920.

Conclusion

While this stamp is by no means rare, it is significant as the first stamp of a unified South Africa, and also their first bilingual one. It embodies some political history linking a colonial and republican past in a self-governing dominion. It remained valid for use until demonetised at the end of 1972! However, it was not the first Empire stamp to carry the portrait of King George V; credit for that goes to Newfoundland whose set of stamps commemorating John Guy’s pioneer settlement there in 1610 included in its 15c stamp a likeness of George V for the first time as King.

References

• Chilton, A.R. 1985. ‘- The 1910 Union Parliament Commemorative. The Springbok, Vol 33, No.4, pp.76-83. • Board, C. 2000. The Union Commem-orative Stamp of South Africa 1910 and its Designer, Henry Straughan Wilkinson. Part 1, The London Philatelist, Vol. 109, No. 1277 , pp. 183-202. Part 2 The London Philatelist, Vol. 109, No.1278, pp.216-221, 226. • Board, C. 2000. Henry Straughan Wilkinson and the design of the Union commemorative postage stamp of 1910: speculation and evidence. The Transvaal Philatelist, Volume 35 (3) No. 135, pp.77-87 • Board, C. 2001. South Africa 1910 Union Commem-orative: an update. Correspondence in The London Philatelist, Vol.110, No. 1283, pp.69-70. • De La Rue Archives: Correspondence Transvaal & Union of South Africa, Volume 1, Private Day Book Z, Stamp Albums XVI and LXIII • National Archives, Pretoria: Treasury files and Post Office files. • Chilton, A.R. 1985. The 1910 Union Parliament Commemorative, and some Previously Unrecorded Suggested Designs. The Springbok, Vol.33:4 76-83 • Scheeper, D. 2005. Specimen Issues of the 1910 Union Commemorative. South African Philatelist. Vol.81:2, 053-054 • H.J. Raubenheimer, The Early Union Essays in the Post Office Archives. Africana Notes and News, Vol 17:1 March 1966, pp.3- 29. See p.9 under De La Rue essays. • Board , C. 2009 . The Likeness of King George V on the Union of South Africa’s Commemorative Stamp of 1910. The London Philatelist, Vol. 118, No. 1365pp.126-129.

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EXHIBITIONS

Court of Honour

South African Post Office

THE UNION OF SA COMMEMORATIVE STAMP 2010