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South African Railways and Harbours

SAR & H

image by Martin Grieve, 24 Mar 2004

South African Railways and Harbours

See also :

South African Railways and Harbours (SAR & H)

Some time ago, whilst browsing through some old flag books at my local library I came upon a copy of "Flags of the World" by Barraclough (1965 edition). Upon turning to the pages dealing with South Africa, there on page 221 appeared a black and white outline drawing of the house flag of the South African Railways and Harbours Administration along with the following description:

"The House flag of the South African Railways and Harbours Administration has a field four by three and is quartered diagonally, green and gold (green at the hoist and the fly); superimposed on the centre is a white-edged green disc charged with a springbok in natural colours".
Martin Grieve, 24 Mar 2004

Jarig Bakker has very kindly sent me a scan from Loughran's "A Survey of Mercantile House flags & Funnels" (1979) which shows two flags - one being very similar to that shown above, and the other showing the same basic design, but with what appears to be a flying Springbok replacing the earlier version in the disc.

image by Martin Grieve, 24 Mar 2004

Jarig also included the text from the book:
"The South African Railways & Harbours Administration have quite handsome markings, the flag originally embodying a Springbok which was replaced by a more modern symbol. The funnels remained the same."

My thanks to Jarig for partially clearing the mystery of dates but two questions remain:
1. In what year was the first flag adopted?
2. In what year was the second flag abolished?
Martin Grieve, 24 Mar 2004