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South African Philatelist August 1938 |
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Voortrekker
Centenary 16 December 1938
Two forms of Philatelic Records will be available
for this Historic Occasion
1. The Voortrekker Monument Committee
have arranged an Ox-Wagon Post which will carry special
commemorative envelopes issued by the Committee. These
will receive special cancellation marks at certain
historic spots en route and again on arrival at Pretoria
in the Centenary Post Office at the Monument.
The ox-wagon leaves Capetown on 8th August; travelling
via Mossel Bay and Oudtshoorn it reaches Graaff-Reinet
on 20th September and Slagter's Nek
(near Cradock; the site of the culminating scene of
an armed struggle between British and Dutch in 1816
- events which led up ultimately to the start of the
Great Trek in 1836) on 28th September. Bulhoek, the
reputed birth place of President Kruger is reached
on 11th October.
Continuing onwards via Bloemfontein and Kroonstad
it reaches Vegkop (where the Trekkers had their first
encounter with the Matabele) on 2nd November. The
route is then via Potchefstroom, the first capital
of the Transvaal, Zeerust, Rustenburg, Johannesburg
and Pretoria.
The total distance travelled will be 1,705 miles,
the time taken being four months and seven days.
There are no restrictions as to the amount of stamps
put on the covers, so long as there is sufficient
to cover postage to the address given.
The Monument Committee evidently expect, however,
that full sets of Voortrekker stamps will mostly be
employed and the envelopes are of a size
(about 9 x 6 inches) to take these comfortably. The
envelopes, designed by Mr. W. H. Coetzer, show Voortrekkers
and a Wagon climbing the side of a kopje and it should
be emphasized that only these special souvenir covers
will be carried by the wagon-post.
The envelopes are obtainable
at the various post offices along the route of the
wagon-post or from the official distributing depot,
the City Stamp Exchange,
No 43 Anglo-African Buildings, Joubert Street, Johannesburg.
There is no doubt that many people, other than ordinary
stamp collectors, will be keen to have a historic
memento of this kind and will not object to paying
their 6d for an envelope and 1s 8d for a set of Voortrekker
stamps (of which 7d goes to the Memorial fund). In
the circumstances it is a pity that the distributing
committee called attention to the possible investment
value of the covers; it rather vulgarises what otherwise
would have been simply a philatelic souvenir of a
most interesting historic occasion.
2. A
new set of Voortrekker stamps
The present set is to be withdrawn
from sale on 30th September, and to be demonetized
on 31st December, 1938. On 15th December a special
centenary set will be issued.
There will be ½d + ½d, 1d +1d, 1½d
+ 1½d, and 3d + 3d alternately in English and
Afrikaans on the sheets. Total face value for the
eight stamps, 2s per set.
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An Envelope, designed by
Mr. W. H. Coetzer
Showing Voortrekkers
and a Wagon climbing the
side of a Kopje
An unused example
prepared with a full set of
the 1933 - 36
Memorial fund stamps
Envelopes with the four pairs neatly arranged where
prepared before hand by the Voortrekker Centenary
Committee
Blank envelopes were
available at 6d each
Whenever the stamps are
applied at random, or include different stamps,
then they were affixed by the sender
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Initially
only the above Envelopes were meant to be carried,
but that stringent
rule was waivered, yet any other envelope carried
on the journey is effectively rare.
The following account I found on
part of an old Photocopy in a collection. I have
no idea who wrote it, when and where it was published
- written in Afrikaans, I have translated the content.
Note the weight of mail has been
estimated by me after establishing that ten Voortrekker
covers weigh 180 - 200 grams.
Mr M.C. Van Schoor, fondly known as Oom Tienie,
was appointed as a Special Trek-Postmaster to oversee
arrangements and to ensure that all ox-wagon mail
was conveyed as smoothly as possible. It did not
take long before the Trek Post was to encounter
its first problem.
On 8 August 1938 the ox wagons Piet
Retief and Andries Pretorious
departed from Cape Town with approximately half
a ton of mail and by the time they reached Worcester
another 100+ kilos had been added to their load.
On arrival Worcester the mail had to be unloaded
as the base planks and wheels of the wagons were
already beginning to sag.
Van Schoor had personally assured
Dr E.G. Jansen, the Chairman of the Voortrekker
Centenary Committee, that all mail would be transported
to Pretoria and Blood River by ox wagon. To solve
his immediate problem, Oom Tienie and the Worcester
postmaster, Mr Heard, stowed the mail at his office
and sent the ox wagons back onto their route.
In the meantime a new and larger wagon, Hendrik
Potgieter, was built, donated and
completed by Coach Builder Philips of
Paarl in less than two weeks. Rumours
were already circulating that Van Schoor had dispatched
31,541 covers by rail to Pretoria and the media
confronted him at Swellendam. He assured his doubters
that all the mail was strictly under his control.
Thus while the main body of the
Trek was at Heidelburg, the new wagon was sent by
train and unloaded at Ashton Station. That same
night the post held at Worcester was dispatched
per mule cart to Ashton to rendezvous with the new
wagon. Using five spans of oxen, held at strategic
points, the Hendrik Potgieter caught
up with the main trek carrying the all important
mail. Thus part of the ox-wagon mail was in fact
also transported by a mule wagon.
Despite the Post Office ruling that
the ox wagons were to only convey Official Commemorative
Covers. Ordinary mail matter also found its way
onto this historic Trek. Envelopes originating from
South West Africa were at first prohibited and that
rule was also withdrawn. 6739 Covers with S.W.A.
overprints were loaded onto an ox-wagon at Bloemfontein.
Almost 7000 covers is a fairly large number, yet
I do not recall seeing such an item - Some years
ago I acquired the late Mr Leddington SWA collection
which included a huge range of covers, but not one
connected to the 1938 re-enactment of the Great
Trek.
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Posted
BUDE
CORNWALL
23 JY 38
to G.P.O.
Cape Town
Endorsed
Per
OX WAGON POST
from
CAPE TOWN
Return address to England on completion of journey |
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Plain
envelope endorsed
Per Voortrekker
Wagon
Cancelled
SLAGTERSNEK
26 SEP 38
with a
VOORTREKKER MONUMENT
14 XII 38
Machine cancel backstamp
This rather scruffy and aged envelope that
would be consigned to a junk box by most dealers
Yet it is quite a rare Trek Cover because it is not
an Illustrated Commemorative envelope
Many of the plain envelopes that were carried may
not survive as individuals would be inclined to soak
the
stamps off for their collection |
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At
the 1938 Philatelic Congress of Great Britain,
commemoratives once again received a bad press and
they deplored the issues of Spain, along with those
of France and its Colonies.
Other than a mention in the August 1938,
the Philatelic connections with the Ox wagon journeys
plus the various postmarks employed on the commemorative
covers received no coverage in The South African
Philatelist.
Perhaps that was due to the bad image commemoratives
had been subjected to in the general philatelic press,
thus to avoid getting egg on their face the S.A.P.
played down the entire re-enactment as much as possible.
It took until 1975 for Hasso
Reisener to do some justice to the philatelic
events of 1938 in his book The
Special and Commemorative Postmarks, Cachets and Covers
of South Africa by devoting more than
six pages to the famous Trek. It has been recognized,
that his information was probably gleaned from official
sources as there are inaccuracies in his resume.
Our member Siegfried Mayr in the
USA is a Great Trek enthusiast and advises us that
a more authoritative text which covers the history
and the details of the 1938 trek is - G.D.J.
Duvenhage Die
Gedenktrek van 1938: 'n Bedevaart en 'n Kruistog
published in 1988 by Gutenberg in Pretoria.
The title translates The Commemorative Trek
of 1938 - a Pilgrimage and a Crusade.
In a recent late January 2015 email Siegfried offered
an updated list of all known covers, including
known side treks, all with the correct dates,
which often vary from those listed in Otto Reisener's
book.
He
is also aware of one cover (Port Elizabeth) which
H.J. Klopper refused to allow on the wagons due to
a disagreement with the city mayor.
Hence such covers do not have the machine cancel,
but are properly dated. |
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| Voortrekker
Centenary Trek - August to December 1938
Complied by Siegfried Mayr |
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Cover
numbers from Otto Reisener's definitive text |
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| The Pretoria
Trek
Cape Town 8 August 1938 to Voortrekker Monument 16
December 1938 |
| 09
Aug |
Stellenbosch |
1,915 |
12
Aug |
Breerivierstasie |
29 |
26
Aug |
Mossel
Bay/Baai |
844 |
| 31
Aug |
Groot
Brakrivier |
203 |
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| 20
Sept |
Graaff-Reinet |
3,011 |
| 24
Sept |
Somerset
East/Oos |
173 |
| 26
Sept |
Slagtersnek |
25,861 |
13
Oct |
Aliwal
North/Noord |
682 |
| 23
Oct |
Bloemfontein |
3,100 |
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| 12
Nov |
Potchefstroom |
1,402 |
| 09
Dec |
Boksburg
North/Noord |
26 |
10
Dec |
Johannesburg |
1,813 |
| 13/17
Dec |
Voortrekker
Monument |
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Notes
*H.J. Klopper was of the opinion
that the Mayor in Port Elizabeth was unfriendly
towards the Afrikaaners, thus no Port Elizabeth
covers were carried on the wagons and any such envelopes
lack a machine backstamp
**This was a Side Trek - with machine cancel
backstamp
*** No machine cancel backstamp
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I believe to be a unique
cover, that was cancelled at every stop on the Trek
route. Starting in Cape Town on 8 AUG 1938 and terminating
at the Voortrekker Monument on 16 XII 38. There are
48 transit backstamps via Philadelphia 9 AUG 38, reaching
VEGKOP 1 NOV 38 to Parys on the 5th and leaving the
Orange Free State the cancellations continue on the
front of the envelope with the first stop in Transvaal
at Potchefstroom, continuing as far Northwest as Zeerust,
then heading East – Southeast via Germiston
and South to Vereeninging then Northeast via Heidelburg
towards Johannesburg and Pretoria and journey’s
end at the site of the Voortrekker Monument.
The real interest of this Proving
cover is that the various transit
cancels indicate that the actual journey taken by
this ox wagon differs from the itinerary Reisener
published in his book, from Cape Town it went North,
in the direction of Malmesbury, to Philadelphia and
then swung South east towards Stellenbosch and intermediate
stops in the Cape such as Breederivier Station, Bonnievale,
the delightful little town of Zuurbrak, Albertina
and De Rust are not mentioned. Nor are the Orange
Free State towns of Wepener, Thaba ‘Nchu, Edenville,
Heilbron, Kopjes and Vredefort included by Reisener. |
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The journey in the
Transvaal is also quite different & I gain the
impression that the ox wagon almost went walk
about as it wandered Northwest as far
as Zeerust before swinging back south to the Vaal
river to the border town of Vereeninging. Again places
in the Transvaal such as Vereeninging, Heidelburg,
Boksburg North, Boksburg and Alberton do not receive
a mention in Reisener.
Also the dates on this cover do not
agree with those in Reisener book and it ought to
be appreciated that the information in Reisener often
appears to reflect an intended itinerary rather than
the actual journey. I (Otto Peetoom) proved this when
I researched the 1925 the Royal Tour by the Prince
of Wales, Reisener’s train journey was the initial
planned route whereas the actual trip deviated in
more than one instance with the result that the dates
noted by the author do not tally.
Eleven years later the creator
of this cover returned to affix the stamps and cancels
to celebrate the 16 DEC 1949 opening of the Voortrekker
Monument. |
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