X-Nico

7 unusual facts about Union of South Africa


Campuses of the University of the Witwatersrand

The foundation stones of the building (one in English and the other in Dutch) were laid by Prince Arthur of Connaught, then the Governor-General of the Union of South Africa, and also the University's first chancellor.

L. M. Thompson

Leonard Thompson (1916 – June 2004) was a South African historian, well known for his seminal work on the formation of the Union of South Africa and the Oxford two-volume History of South Africa, a collaboration with N. M. Wilson.

Union of South Africa

The Orange Free State this time refused to even discuss the idea, and Prime Minister John Molteno of the Cape Colony called the idea badly informed and irresponsible.

Sir George Grey, the Governor of Cape Colony from 1854 to 1861, decided that unifying the states of southern Africa would be mutually beneficial.

It came into being on 31 May 1910 with the unification of four previously separate British colonies: Cape Colony, Natal Colony, Transvaal Colony and Orange River Colony.

These smaller states would gradually accede to the much larger Cape Colony through a system of treaties, whilst simultaneously gaining elected seats in the Cape parliament.

Anticipating invasion by a European power and already suffering Portuguese encroachment from the north and Afrikaner encroachment from the south, approached the Cape Colony government to discuss the possibility of accession and the political representation it would entail.


Battle of Kisaki

The Battle of Kisaki was a confrontation between German and South Africa forces near the town of Kisaki, German East Africa, on 7–8 September 1916.

Chief Justice of South Africa

The position of Chief Justice was created upon the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910, with the Chief Justice of the Cape Colony Sir (John) Henry de Villiers (later, John de Villiers, 1st Baron de Villiers) being appointed the first Chief Justice of the newly created Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of South Africa.

Conradi Peak

It was discovered in January 1930 by the British Australian New Zealand Antarctic Research Expedition (BANZARE) under Mawson, who named it after a prominent member of the South African government who, in 1929, rendered much help to BANZARE during the stay of the Discovery at Cape Town.

Copyright Act 1911

The Copyright Act 1911 was adapted to circumstances and enacted by the then self-governing dominions of Australia (Copyright Act 1912), Newfoundland (Newfoundland Copyright Act 1912) and the Union of South Africa (Patents, Designs, Trade Marks and Copyright Act 1916).

Etat libre d'Orange

In French, the État libre d'Orange is the name of the Orange Free State, an independent Boer sovereign republic in southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, and later a British colony and a province of the Union of South Africa.

John Murray, 11th Duke of Atholl

The Duke was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, as the only child of Major George Murray (1884–1940) and Joan (d.2000), the daughter of William Edward Eastwood, of South Africa.

Milner's Kindergarten

Milner's Kindergarten is an informal reference to a group of Britons who served in the South African Civil Service under High Commissioner Alfred, Lord Milner, between the Second Boer War and the founding of the Union of South Africa.

Prince Edward Islands Act, 1948

The Prince Edward Islands Act, 1948 (Act No. 43 of 1948) is an act of the Parliament of South Africa that annexed the Prince Edward Islands to the Union of South Africa (as it then was).


see also

John Merriman

John X. Merriman (1841–1926), the last prime minister of the Cape Colony before the formation of the Union of South Africa in 1910

Oakhurst Primary School

The houses are named after Governor-Generals of the Union of South Africa: Alexander Cambridge, 1st Earl of Athlone, Sydney Buxton, 1st Earl Buxton and George Villiers, 6th Earl of Clarendon.