Anri Delport

Stellenbosch University | SUN · Department of Military History

This chapter explores how South African collegiate boys’ schools, as vital components of the imperial apparatus, contributed to a self-perpetuating cycle that both nurtured and reproduced the British Empire, particularly in the context of military efforts during the Second World War. As such, the chapter considers how collegiate schools promoted a...

The enduring significance of the Second World War persists into contemporary times. However, within the realm of historical scholarship, the experiences of Southern Africa during this global conflict have often been overshadowed by dominant narratives focused on Europe, Asia, and North America. While existing research has primarily emphasised contr...

In early 1922, in the wake of a global depression followed by rapidly deteriorating labour and economic conditions, several thousand white mine workers on the Witwatersrand in the Union of South Africa went on strike. These miners armed and organised themselves into commandos and took to the streets. During the opening phases of the unrest, these p...

Book Review of Simon Harold Walker's book, Physical control, transformation and damage in the First World War: War bodies

“Most war stories”, according to Hynes, “begin with a nobody-in-particularyoung man, who lives through the experience of war, to emerge at the end definedby what has happened to him.”443 One such “nobody-in-particular young man” wasnational serviceman 74257684BC Private Stephen Pierre Joubert, born on 3 July 1958in Chingola, then Northern Rhodesia....

The Second World War involved most of the countries of the world and left so many millions dead and maimed, disorganised and devastated through personal and communal loss. This book recovers some of South Africa’s soldiers’ experiences from the physical and mental debris of the war. Individuals are important; their lives – used as lenses – give us...

Like other dominions of the British Empire, the Union of South Africa's participation in the war was varied. South African volunteers served in various geographical campaigns, ranging from the Western Front (1916-1918), Egypt (1916), and Palestine (1917-1918), amongst others. Furthermore, the South African war experience also differed due to the co...

The First World War ended in November 1918. As the ink dried on the last treaty in August 1920, the conflict was officially resolved in legal terms. However, this legal finality did not extend to the lives of the soldiers of the war. Their stories of broken lives, shattered marriages, lost careers and opportunities highlighted the fact that the eff...

In 1914-'18 the Great War, as it is still widely known today, engulfed the world, including the recently-founded Union of South Africa. As opposed to other empires and Allied states, the Union’s experience of the global war’s intoxication in August and September 1914 was more complex, inconsistent and layered. The cry for war was heard in a period...

The emphasis of this article falls on South African wartime attitudes towards Italy structured around the differentiation in attitudes between the Union government; the domestic sphere; and the armed forces. On 11 June 1940 the Union issued a declaration of war in response to Italy's new belligerent status. Attitudes towards Italy were thus altered...