1918 in South Africa

The following lists events that happened during 1918 in South Africa.

← 1917 1916 1915 1918 in South Africa → 1919 1920 1921
Decades:	1890s 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s
See also:	List of years in South Africa

Incumbents

• Monarch: King George V.
• Governor-General and High Commissioner for Southern Africa: The Viscount Buxton.[1]
• Prime Minister: Louis Botha.
• Chief Justice: James Rose Innes

Events

• An estimated 500,000 people die in the 1918 flu pandemic in South Africa, the fifth hardest hit country in the world.[2]

January

• 8 – The Koöperatiewe Wijnbouwers Vereniging van Zuid-Afrika (KWV) is founded in Paarl.

April

• 2 – Victoria College becomes the Stellenbosch University.

May

• 14 – The Three Minute Pause, initiated by the daily firing of the Noon Gun on Signal Hill, is instituted by Cape Town Mayor Sir Harry Hands.[3]

June

• 4 – RMS Kenilworth Castle, one of the Union-Castle Line steamships, collides with her escort destroyer HMS Rival while trying to avoid her other escort, the cruiser HMS Kent.
• 5 – The Afrikaner Broederbond, a confidential cultural organisation, is founded in Johannesburg.

November

• 14 – German East African troops are informed of the armistice on 11 November.
• 25 – General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, commander of German forces in the German East Africa campaign, signs a ceasefire at Abercorn in Northern Rhodesia.

Births

• 21 January – Frederick Guy Butler, poet, academic and writer. (d. 2001)
• 1 July – Ahmed Deedat, Sunni Muslim missionary. (d. 2005)
• 13 July – Larry Taylor, actor. (d. 2003)
• 16 July – John (Jack) Frost, Second World War fighter pilot. (d. MIA 1942)
• 18 July – Nelson Mandela, activist and President of South Africa. (d. 2013)

Deaths

• 5 December – Schalk Willem Burger, Boer officer, lawyer, politician and statesman. (b. 1852)

Railways

Railway lines opened

Class 15B

Class MJ1

• 2 February – Cape – Kootjieskolk to Calvinia, 43 miles 47 chains (70.1 kilometres).[4]
• 16 September – Cape – Kootjieskolk to Sakrivier, 27 miles 21 chains (43.9 kilometres).[4]

Locomotives

• Three new Cape gauge locomotive types enter service on the South African Railways (SAR):
  • The first batch of twenty Class 14C 4-8-2 Mountain type locomotives.[5][6]
  • The first of thirty Class 15B 4-8-2 Mountain type locomotives.[6]
  • Eight Class MJ1 branchline 2-6-6-0 Mallet articulated compound steam locomotives.[5][6]

References

1. Archontology.org: A Guide for Study of Historical Offices: South Africa: Governors-General: 1910-1961 (Accessed on 14 April 2017)
2. Colds and flu: 1918 - South Africa's death toll Archived 7 September 2008 at the Wayback Machine (Accessed on 17 April 2017)
3. Royal Canadian Legion Branch # 138."2-Minute Wave of Silence" Revives a Time-honoured Tradition. Accessed on 5 June 2014.
4. Statement Showing, in Chronological Order, the Date of Opening and the Mileage of Each Section of Railway, Statement No. 19, p. 188, ref. no. 200954-13
5. Holland, D. F. (1972). Steam Locomotives of the South African Railways. 2: 1910-1955 (1st ed.). Newton Abbott, Devon: David & Charles. pp. 34, 36–37. ISBN 978-0-7153-5427-8.
6. Paxton, Leith; Bourne, David (1985). Locomotives of the South African Railways (1st ed.). Cape Town: Struik. pp. 58–61, 88. ISBN 0869772112.