This photo was taken on the day the King’s Colour was presented to the Cape Town Highlanders, 10 Oct 1904. The presentation was made by the sister of King Edward VII, HRH Princess Christian. The officer carrying the Colour is named as Lieutenant S D W Mills and the sergeants are P Hardy and P W Cairns. It is a Union Flag with a gold fringe, an honorary banner for service in the South African War of 1899-1902. There was no battle honour on this Colour. A Regimental Colour would have carried that battle honour and the honour for BECHUANALAND 1896-97, but only the King’s Colour was presented on that occasion. By 1914 the regiment, along with the other six Infantry regiments of the Active Citizen Force had both Colours.
The pole has a gilt top in the form of the Royal Crest. There is a silver plate on the pole inscribed:
‘Presented by His Most Gracious Majesty the King Emperor to the Cape Town Highlanders in recognition of services rendered to the Empire in South Africa, 1904.’
The Presentation took place on the Grand Parade, Cape Town. Princess Christian said in her speech:
‘In entrusting this Standard to your care in the name of the King, I feel convinced it will be guarded with that loyalty and devotion which has ever characterised the nation to which you belong.’
Princess Christian was the fifth child, and 3rd daughter, of Queen Victoria. She was born on 25 May 1846 as Helena Augusta Victoria. She married the impoverished Prince Christian of Schleswig-Holstein in 1866 which was politically controversial. Her husband died in 1917 and she died in 1923. The photos below show the Princess alighting from a train during her tour of South Africa in 1904. She is also shown with her husband at around that time. She presented Colours to other units on this occasion, the last of a number of presentations carried out by her in different parts of the country. On parade, as well as 450 men of the CTH, were 650 men of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Own Volunteer Rifles, 400 of the Cape Peninsula Rifles, 280 of the Cape Garrison Artillery, and 200 of Prince Alfred’s Own Cape Field Artillery.
