Springbok Club

The Springbok Club is a UK-based association of expatriate Southern Africans and others who have an interest in the African continent. Although primarily a social organisation, it does have a political dimension which can be termed neo-Imperialist, in as much as it advocates a return to civilised rule in South Africa, the erstwhile Rhodesia and elsewhere in the "third world". The Springbok Club also operates under the name of the Empire Loyalist Club, and has close links to the London Swinton Circle and New Britain. More fundamentally, it supports a revived "forward-looking" British Empire and Commonwealth (as well as the re-establishment of the other great European nation states's overseas empires), as an alternative to the inward-looking European Union.

The organisation was founded in London in 1996 as a merger between the White Rhino Club and the Rhodesian Forum. The name was chosen because the Springbok was formerly the symbol of Southern African sporting teams when players could be chosen from throughout South Africa, Rhodesia and South West Africa. It does not, however, have any direct connection to any South African sporting teams of today.

The Club is strongly committed to causes such as continuing British Sovereignty over its existing overseas territories such as Gibraltar, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands and the Falkland Islands etc., and stronger ties between the UK and Commonwealth countries such as Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Malta. A regular guest speaker at joint functions staged by the Springbok Club and the London Swinton Circle is Philip Benwell MBE, chairman of the Australian Monarchist League.

The club organises regular functions. Guest speakers in the past have included Lord Bellhaven and Stenton, the Earl of Burford, John Clemence QPM, BSc., Dennis Delderfield, Dr. Philip du Toit, Dr. Ferdi Hartzenberg, the Marques de Lendinez, Frank Maloney, Professor David Marsland, Prof. Charles Muller, Sir Robert Peliza, Group Captain Peter Petter-Bowyer, Albert Poggio OBE, Andrew Roberts, Johnny Rodrigues, Michael Shrimpton, Albert Weidemann, Maurice Xiberras, and former Conservative MPs Jacques Arnold, Neil Hamilton and Andrew Hunter.

It holds special events each year when it celebrates Van Riebeeck’s Day, Empire Day, Rhodes & Founders Day, UDI Day and the Day of the Vow. The club's main centre is in London, but is developing a branch structure in other parts of the UK and throughout the world. The Club's current organiser is Alan Harvey, who has been editor of the magazine "S.A. Patriot" (now "S.A. Patriot-in-Exile") since 1981.

External links

* [http://www.netcomuk.co.uk/~springbk/springbk.html Official site]