History: 1814-1910

The United Kingdom owned the Cape of Good Hope from 1814 onwards. Roman-Dutch law remained the legal system, and so the established heraldic practice continued unchanged - but not alone. British heraldry was established alongside it, creating a "two-stream" arrangement which still exists today, throughout the whole of South Africa.

Everyone had the right to assume arms at will, but those who preferred their heraldry to be more formal could apply for grants from the College of Arms (England), the Lyon Office (Scotland), or the Ulster Office (Ireland). However, few did so, and self-assumption of arms, and transplantation from other countries, remained the norm.

The official symbols of the Cape Colony were the Union Jack and the British royal arms (which were altered in 1816, and again in 1837, when Hanover went its own separate way).

The arms of families and individuals continued to make up the bulk of the growing colonial armorial. Immigration continued, from Europe as well as the United Kingdom. The first major wave of British settlers - some of whom were armigerous - arrived in 1820, under a British government migration scheme.

As the British heraldic authorities were distant, colonial heraldry remained in the hands of amateurs and enthusiasts. A Scottish settler, Charles Bell, was the most prominent, and is sometimes called "the father of South African heraldry". In the 1830s, he began to compile the first collection of Afrikaner family arms, and he later designed arms, as well as medals and postage stamps.

In 1837 an Afrikaner, Sir Jan Truter, became the first South African to obtain a grant from the College of Arms.

The Roman Catholic Church began established a vicariate for the Cape Colony in 1837, thus introducing Catholic Church heraldry to South Africa.

In the mid-1830s, thousands of disgruntled Afrikaners, who'd had enough of British rule, migrated out of the colony, in convoys of ox-wagons, to settle in the interior, beyond British jurisdiction. In 1838, they proclaimed the republic of "Natalia", but Britain seized it in 1842, and renamed it "Natal". Natalia had an official flag, but apparently not a coat of arms.

The Anglican Church was established in the Cape Colony in 1847, and with it came Anglican heraldry in the form of diocesan arms.

In 1854, Britain recognised the independence of the Afrikaner migrants ("voortrekkers") north of the Orange and Vaal Rivers. These territories became the Orange Free State and the South African Republic, and both adopted official arms and flags. Although it was a republic, the OFS had its arms granted by the king of the Netherlands. The ox-wagon featured prominently in both arms.

Municipal heraldry began to develop during the second half of the century, predominantly in the Cape Colony. By the 1890s, all the major towns in the Cape, Natal, and OFS had arms.

The British government introduced pictorial flag badges in the 1860s, to distinguish individual colonies. Natal's depicted a wildebeest. In 1875, the Cape Colony adopted official government arms, which Queen Victoria formally granted the following year: the first royal grant to a South African authority.

Britain provoked the two Boer republics into war in 1899. In 1902, after three years of fighting, the devastated republics surrendered and became British colonies. The Orange River Colony (as the OFS was called from 1902 to 1910) was granted official arms in 1904. Natal was granted arms in 1907. Transvaal did without an official emblem.

The number of British grants of arms increased, and until the 1920s there was a fairly steady flow of Letters Patent. Besides the two colonies, Edwardian-era grantees included a university, recently-knighted politicians and mining magnates, and two Transvaal municipalities.

1652-1814 | 1910-1963

References/Sources/Links

South African Heraldry Website © Arthur Radburn