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Princess Anne will be in South Africa on January 22 for the inauguration of the Cape Town Labour Corps Memorial
Black African servicemen who died in the First World War are being commemorated for the first time.
Princess Anne will be in South Africa on January 22 for the inauguration of the Cape Town Labour Corps Memorial.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission has paid for a new memorial to honour the 1700 men, which will open in Cape Town. The UK based organisation said the Cape Town Labour Corps Memorial will commemorate those who served and died in labour contingents across Africa but currently have no known grave.
It is part of a restorative programme for occasions when the Imperial War Graves Commission chose not to treat some ethnic groups in the same way it treated Europeans.
Claire Horton,the Director General of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, based in Maidenhead, said: “This landmark memorial, designed and built collaboratively in South Africa, testifies to our shared global history and responsibility to honour all those who gave their lives in service.
“It acts as a poignant tribute to the predominantly black South Africans who fought in Africa during the First World War and who were not commemorated at the time.
“The careful and deliberate design of this new memorial offers visitors the space to contemplate the scale of loss of military labourers who gave their lives – ensuring their contribution to the war effort is never forgotten.”
During the war, military labourers undertook dangerous and gruelling non-combatant roles such as porters, stevedores, wagon drivers and railway workers. They made essential contributions to the war effort.
The new CWGC memorial is located within the Delville Wood Memorial Garden on the outskirts of Cape Town. Following a national architectural competition, the aptly named design, ‘The Last Post’ by Durban-based architectural firm Dean Jay Architects, was selected as the winner.
