Verwoerd

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Cachet: The cachet on this cover is built around the initials H.F.V in bold white lettering, set inside an olive green panel and framed by a laurel wreath printed in the same pale tone. The wreath, tied at the base by two crossed ribbons, gives the design a formal, memorial character suited to the man it commemorates. Above the panel a springbok in flight appears on a blue strip alongside the words "Per Lugpos / By Air Mail / Par Avion". Along the bottom edge the cover identifies itself in bilingual text as an "Amptelike Gedenkkoevert / Official Commemorative Envelope", numbered 4 in the series. Three stamps sit across the top right, each showing the same portrait of Verwoerd rendered in a different colour and denomination, cancelled by two Voortrekker Monument postmarks from Pretoria that each carry a small image of the monument itself.

Info card

Hendrik Frensh Verwoerd is op 8 September 1901 in Nederland gebore en het op tweejarige leeftyd saam met sy ouers na Suid-Afrika gekom. Hy was 'n briljante student aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch waar hy sy doktoraat in Sielkunde behaal het. Daarna het hy aan universiteite in Duitsland, Holland en die Verenigde State gestudeer. Verskeie van sy werke is gepubliseer. In 1937 het hy die leerstoel vir Sosiologie en Volkswelsyn aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch bedank om die pos as eerste redakteur van "Die Transvaler", 'n Afrikaanse koerant wat in Johannesburg uitgegee word, te aanvaar. In 1948 is dr. Verwoerd as senator aangestel en spoedig daarna as Minister van Bantoesake. Belangrike gebeurtenisse in die geskiedenis van Suid-Afrika het sy loopbaan as Eerste Minister sedert 1958 gekenmerk: Suid-Afrika het 'n Republiek geword en het sy aansoek om volgehoue lidmaatskap van die Statebond teruggetrek; sy regering het aan die eerste Bantoetuisland 'n grondwet vir interne selfregering toegestaan (1963); hy was die eerste Suid-Afrikaanse Eerste Minister wat op eie bodem die leier van 'n Swart staat ontvang het, slegs 'n paar dae voor die sluipmoord in die parlement op 6 September 1966. Dr. Verwoerd het 'n vorige aanslag op sy lewe in 1960 oorleef. Hendrik Frensh Verwoerd was born on September 8, 1901, in the Netherlands, and came with his parents to South Africa when he was two years old. He was a brilliant student at the University of Stellenbosch where he obtained a doctorate in psychology. Thereafter he studied at universities in Germany, Holland and the United States. Several of his research works were published. In 1937 he resigned the chair of Sociology and Social Welfare at Stellenbosch University to become the first editor of "Die Transvaler", an Afrikaans newspaper published in Johannesburg. In 1948, Dr. Verwoerd was appointed Senator and soon afterwards Minister of Bantu Affairs. Momentous events in the history of South Africa marked his career as Prime Minister since 1958: South Africa became a Republic and withdrew her application for continued membership of the Commonwealth; his Government granted the first Bantu homeland in the Republic a constitution for internal self-government (1963); he was the first South African Prime Minister to receive the head of a Black state on South African soil, only a few days before he was assassinated in Parliament on September 6, 1966. Dr. Verwoerd survived a previous assassination attempt in 1960.

Additional information

This cover is postmarked on 6 October 1966 at the Voortrekker Monument in Pretoria. It carries three stamps in different denominations and colours, all issued to commemorate the life of Dr Hendrik Frensh Verwoerd, who served as Prime Minister of South Africa from 1958 until his assassination in Parliament in September 1966. Verwoerd survived an earlier assassination attempt in 1960, six years before the attack that ended his life just days after he had become the first South African Prime Minister to receive the head of a Black state on South African soil.

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