South Africa: Order of Good Hope

[zorg]

South Africa's highest civilian award - awarded to foreign citizens for promoting international relations with the increasingly isolated apartheid state. Awarded (1973-2002).

First type (1973-88) badge of the Commander class of the order. 8-pointed multi-rayed silver star (4,6 x 4,6 cm; 44gr sterling silver), displaying two white doves on a turquoise roundel (obverse) and the national coat of arms (reverse). Unfortunately lost.

[Mervyn Mitton]

A rare award, Zorg. Nice to see it - shame on the missing enamel. I wonder if one could be found ?

[zorg]

Thx Mervyn! Maybe you have a picture of the undestroyed reverse?

[zorg]

A rare award, Zorg. Nice to see it ...

Can you value it? Some time ago i saw a younger one on 'bid or buy' for ~ R1.600 ...

[gavinmedals]

I was trawling through some of the older topics and thought I would share an example of the Order of Good Hope in the class of Grand Officer that was awarded to Lord Barnby CMG, CBE, MVO, TD, in this thread. Hopefully this will help show some of the interesting associated items such as the award box, certificates etc associated with this South African order. While I do not have the most up to date figures some references show that there were 29 awards of the order in the Grand Officer class.

The first post illustrates a photo of Lord Barnby and the award case for the order

Regards

Gavin

[gavinmedals]

As a continuation to the illustration of the order awarded to Lord Barnby, I enclose photos of the obverse and reverse of the neck and breast badges of the Order. Unfortunately the rosette is missing in this lot. In this case the old SA Coat of Arms emblem is still present on the neck badge of the order. The final post in the series of three will illustrate the award document and some other associated letters.

Regards

Gavin

[gavinmedals]

In this final post the award document signed by the then State President, Viljoen and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pik Botha is illustrated, a copy of the letter from the South African Embassy in London that accompanied the order and finally the permission for unrestricted wear granted to Lord Barnby from Buckingham Palace.

A very brief biography of Lord Barnby:

Francis Vernon Willey, the 2nd Baron Barny was born in Bradford, Yorkshire in 1884. He was educated at Eton; Magdalen College., Oxford. He was mobilized in 1914, serving in Egypt and Gallipoli in 1915. He was recalled in to the position of Assistant Dir of Ordnance Stores and controller of Wool Supplies under the War Department in June 1916. After the war he held a number of executive business positions including amongst others serving on the Board of Directors of Lloyds Bank. He was created the second Baron in 1922.

Clearly still much research to undertake on him and unfortunately I do not own his full group just this South African order.

Regards

Gavin

[Mervyn Mitton]

Gavin - thankyou for showing all of this material - very interesting. I have seen one or two on the market - however,

have been suspicious of them. Best wishes Mervyn

[Megan]

Fascinating - I haven't yet encountered any illustrations of this Order for my website yet. At least I now know what I am looking for!

[Megan]

Blows dust off... and now some images have come to light.

 

There are two types of the order with small but distinctive differences between the insignia.

 

The first one, awarded 1973-1988, consisted of 5 classes: Grand Collar, Grand Cross, Grand Officer, Commander, and Officer. The Collar was mostly given to foreign heads of state and I've not found images or even a description of it (grrr).

 

The differences in the badge are 1) the number of proteas flowers on the obverse and 2) the coloured enamels on the reverse. To illustrate this, here's the obverse and reverse of the Grand Cross badge:

 

 

And the Grand Cross star:

 

 

Note the proteas flowers - there are 12 of them. Here's a Type 1 Commander for good measure:

 

 

Now, to the Type 2... and a Grand Cross set. There are now only 8 proteas flowers with a different arrangement:

 

 

A Grand Officer badge and star, also sadly obverse only:

 

 

Finally, to show the reverse - no enamels, just the pre-1994 South African arms in relief - is the Type 2 Officer:

 

That kept me out of mischief yesterday...

[Marcon1]

Hi Megan,

 

Here is some additional information     ;

 

Order of Good Hope (1973-2002)
Awarded to foreign citizens (and, from 1980 to 1988, to South Africans too), for promoting international relations with the increasingly isolated apartheid state. The order was originally divided into five classes:

• Grand Collar - for heads of state only.
• Grand Cross - for heads of government, ministers of state, judges, presidents of legislatures, secretaries of state, ambassadors, commanders-in-chief, and others.
• Grand Officer - for legislators, envoys, senior military officers, and others.
• Commander - for chargés d'affaires, consuls-general, colonels, and others.
• Officer - for consuls, lower-ranking military officers, and others.

The order was reorganised in 1988:

• Grand Cross - for excellent meritorious service (heads of state and, in special cases, heads of government).
• Grand Officer - for outstanding meritorious service (heads of government, ministers of state, judges, presidents of legislatures, secretaries of state, ambassadors, commanders-in-chief, and others).
• Commander - for exceptionally meritorious service (legislators, envoys, senior military officers, and others).
• Officer - for meritorious service (chargés d'affaires, consuls-general, colonels, and others).
• Member - for exceptional service (consuls, lower-ranking military officers, and others).

Insignia: An 8-pointed multi-rayed gold or silver star, displaying two white doves on a turquoise roundel (obverse) and the national coat of arms (reverse).