The late Queen's visit to Wilderness

GEORGE NEWS - The death of Queen Elizabeth II has sparked memories of the royal family's visit to George in 1947 when the Queen was 21 years old. Wilderness resident Hugo Leggatt tells our readers more about their time spent in the village.

In 1946 it was announced that, early in the following year, King George VI together with the Queen and their daughters, Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret, would undertake a lengthy tour of Southern Africa. This visit would turn out to bring to the Wilderness a unique little spot in history.

Britain's newest battleship, HMS Vanguard, fresh from the shipyard, was commissioned and brought into service. The party left Portsmouth on the bitterly cold morning of 31 January 1947 and arrived in a hot Cape Town on Monday 17 February.

George VI was the only monarch to visit South Africa in his capacity of head of state of the country.

After a busy few days in Cape Town, the royal party journeyed to George on the specially prepared White Train. One of these coaches can be seen in the Transport Museum in George and is worth a visit.

The train arrived in George in the very early hours of Sunday morning and it was planned that the royal party should spend their first Sunday in South Africa in a relaxed semi-private visit to the Wilderness.

The George & Knysna Herald of the time reported: "By 8 o'clock on Sunday morning little knots of folk with cameras and cines (bit of a surprise, that) were at most bends and crossroads on the way to the Wilderness.

"The party in their closed Daimler cars, preceded by hordes of other officials, police and so on, arrived at Wilderness at about 11.30 and went straight to the road-rail bridge across the Touw."

Church service under trees

At what is now the Ebb-and-Flow North camp in the park, a church service was held under the trees assisted by a pedal organ brought specially from George. The Bishop of George, Bishop Herbert Gwyer, preached a sermon which was said to be rather long, and the Queen (the late Queen Mother) remarked afterwards that she "enjoyed the outing with the birds chirping in the trees and an old frog joining in the hymns".

Special jetties (landing stages, they were called) had been built at the campsite and also at Ebb-and-Flow itself, where the navigable water ends. These apparently sturdy structures proved a great asset to the public for the next few years but were swept away in the great flood of 1951.

After the service the party went upstream in three motor boats. No reporters were allowed. so there is no public record of the trip, which the late Denis Raubenheimer described as being very relaxed and informal.

Apparently some way upstream the 16-year-old Princess Margaret transferred from the large launch into a smaller one that was carrying her father's ADC, Group Capt Peter Townsend, perhaps the first signs of a relationship which was to have significant impact a few years later.

Boerewors and sosaties

The party went ashore under the tall yellowwoods which still provide welcome shade in the summer. Princess Elizabeth, the late Queen, was then not yet 21 and apparently enjoyed swinging on a monkey rope.

Her mother enquired the name of the ubiquitous yellow-flowered creeper and was told it was called "geelblommetjie", a word she may have had some difficulty with.

Later the party drove up White's Road to Saasveld, much smaller then than now. Ironically, the then principal of the college was Mr King and the visit was headlined "King meets King".

The party lunched on boerewors and sosaties. The Queen mentioned that the mountain scenery reminded her of her native Scotland and one feels that it must have been a day the royal family looked back on as an idyllic interlude.

The royal Daimlers in Waterside Road.