Adolph Malan - Later Life

Later Life

In 1946 Malan left the RAF and returned to South Africa where he joined the Torch Commando a joint project of the anti-fascist ex-servicemen's organisation, the Springbok Legion and the War Veterans Action committee. Sailor Malan became the president of that new organization. In Malan's words, it was "established to oppose the police state, abuse of state power, censorship, racism, the removal of the Coloured vote and other oppressive manifestations of the creeping fascism of the National Party regime".

Amongst the leading members of the Springbok Legion were many ex-servicemen who would later join the African National Congress and Umkhonto we Sizwe under the leadership of Nelson Mandela. Amongst these were Joe Slovo, Jack Hodgson, Wolfie Kodesh, Brian Bunting and Fred Carneson. After the National Party came to power and began to implement its policies, many found the Springbok Legion, founded in 1941, (see Torch commando) to be too left orientated and too radical. In 1950 members of the Springbok Legion began to work with other more liberal organizations and even the United Party official opposition, to find new ways to mobilise protest support against a string of Apartheid laws.

In 1951 the Springbok Legion, formed a protest group together with the War Veterans Action Committee, to appeal to a broader base of ex-servicemen, which they called the 'Torch Commando', as a tactic to fight the National Party's plans to remove Cape's "coloured" voters from the roll. Harry Schwarz, an ex-serviceman and later a leading figure in the anti-apartheid movement was one of the founders of the organization. The Torch Commando fought a battle for more than five years, and at its height had 250,000 members. The government was alarmed by the number of judges, public servants and military officers joining the organisation that a new law was passed to ban anyone in public service or the military from joining. The National Party ensured that the memory of the Springbok Legion, Torch Commando and of Sailor Malan was purged from history because there was a fear particularly that young Afrikaners might want to emulate Malan.

At its largest Torch Commando protest rally, the Springbok Legion attracted 75,000 people. In a speech at a rally outside City Hall in Johannesburg, Malan made reference to the ideals for which the Second World War was fought: “The strength of this gathering is evidence that the men and women who fought in the war for freedom still cherish what they fought for. We are determined not to be denied the fruits of that victory.”

Malan died in 1963 from Parkinson's Disease, at the time a rare and essentially mysterious malady. A considerable sum of money was raised in his name to further study the disease, a fund that continues to this day.

He survived by his wife, Lynda, son Jonathan, and daughter Valerie.

In the 1969 war film Battle of Britain, the Robert Shaw character 'Squadron Leader Skipper' was explicitly based on Malan, as recounted by director Guy Hamilton in the documentary 'A Film for the Few', which was included with the 2004 Special Edition DVD release.