SA Union: Voortrekker Centenary: Torch Bearers

SA Union: Voortrekker Centenary: Torch Bearers

Form:

Circular

By:

Koninklijke-Begeer, Utrecht, Holland

Date:

1938

Ref:

AM2: 262; Laidlaw: 0135a;

Variations:

Size	Metal	Mass	Value
60.0 mm	Silver	83.4 gm	$125
60.1 mm	Bronze	74.0 gm	$45
60.1 mm	Silvered Bronze	85.7 gm	$55
60.0 mm	Yellow Bronze	89.2 gm	$50

Edge:

Plain.
Silver medal stamped: “ZILVER” and KON. BEGEER / HOLLAND”.
Bronze medal stamped: “HOLLAND”.
Silvered Bronze medal stamped “BRONS” and KON. BEGEER / HOLLAND”.
Yellow Bronze medal not stamped.

Obverse:

Voortrekker Monument with wall of wagons. Legend: “VOORTREKKER-EEUFEES (Voortrekker Centenary)”. In the exergue: “1838-1938”

Reverse:

Male and female torch bearers, in uniforms of the Voortrekker youth movement, running right. Legend above: “KAAPSTAD – MGUNGUNDLOVU – PRETORIA” and below the ground line: “FAKKELLOOP”.

Notes:

The obverse shows the Voortrekker Monument, a massive granite structure located near Pretoria, erected in honour of the Afrikaners who trekked north from the Cape Colony between 1835 and 1854 to establish Republics in the Orange Free State and Transvaal. Only the cornerstone for the monument had been laid in 1938. The Second World War delayed construction and the monument was finally inaugurated on 16 December 1949 (Dingane Day) by Prime Minister D.F. Malan.

The reverse of the medal commemorates the torch-relay by the Voortrekkers (the Afrikaner equivalent of the Boy Scouts) from Cape Town to Pretoria in 1938, in celebration of the Great Trek Centenary. The relay passed through Mgungundlovu in Northern Natal, the site of royal capital of the Zulu king Dingane. The Voortrekker leader Piet Retief and his party of about 100 people were clubbed to death there on 6th February 1838 under the direction of Dingane.

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SA Union: Voortrekker Centenary: Torch Bearers