The Observation Post will be taking the circuit lecture and talk on the history of the Torch Commando to Simonstown next. It will be hosted by the Naval Officers’ Association of Southern Africa at the Seven Seas Club in Simonstown. It is a closed session for members of the Seven Seas and Naval Officers’ fraternity, their partners and invited guests.

Peter Dickens – B Soc.Sc. (Rhodes) PG Dip (UNISA) – will be presenting the lecture on the Rise and Fall of the Torch Commando, he will be joined by fellow discussant Capt (SAN) Graeme Plint – MMM MMil. (Stell). Graeme’s 2021 Masters thesis “The influence of Second World War military service on prominent White South African veterans in opposition politics 1939 – 1961” will add significant gravitas to the discussion on The Torch Commando and Sailor Malan, the South African war-time Battle of Britain ace.

Titled ‘An inconvenient truth’ it is an in-depth look at The Torch Commando, South Africa’s first mass Anti-Apartheid protest movement and the politics of returning South African WW2 veterans.

Topics to be covered include:

• The Nazification of the Afrikaner Right
• The Returning War Veterans Action Committee
• Sailor Malan
• The Steel Commando
• The rise and fall of The Torch Commando
• The smoking gun to the ‘white’ struggle against Apartheid

Date: 14th May 2024

Venue: Seven Seas Club, Simonstown. 

Time: 11:30 am start.

Who: Naval Officers’ Association members, their partners and invited guests.

Lunch: Optional at own expense.