Last Outpost, noun phrase

Origin:
In this sense, coined by Tommy Bedford in the early 1970s, responding to a perceived bias against Natal players by the national rugby selectors, who were said to look on Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal) as though it were not a part of South Africa but still belonged to the British Empire.
In full the Last Outpost of the British Empire: a jocular name for the province of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), or sometimes for the city of Durban, alluding to a perceived isolationism, and a supposed adherence to all things British, among its English-speaking inhabitants. Also attributive.
1988 E. Platter in Style Aug. 58Is Natal the Last Outpost? Are Natalians a breed apart?..Our Last Outpost image died years ago. We were very anti-Republic here.
1990 Sunday Times 1 Apr. 29They might call his province the Last Outpost of the British Empire, but Mac is no whingeing Pom.
1990 D. Van Heerden in Sunday Times 10 June 8Umlazi with its 75 percent of English-speakers showed that the CP can come within the thickness of a banana peel of victory in the heartland of the Last Outpost of emergency rule.
1990 A. Jay on Radio 5, 6 JulyIn the Last Outpost this morning, fine and mild, Durbs 15 to 23.
1990 M. Edwards in Flying Springbok July 23Bedford, whose most famous pronouncement came when he said that Natal was ‘The last outpost of the British Empire’, and whose rugby career seemed always clouded in controversy, was one of Natal’s greatest captains.
1990 Sunday Times 14 Oct. 25Not every 100 years that Natal wins the Currie Cup. In the Last Outpost they are more used to defeat and the stiff upper lip that should go with it.
1991 TV1, 31 MayNatal has always been a sporting province, but the Last Outpost has really excelled itself over the last two years.
1991 A. Van Wyk Birth of New Afrikaner 11An ardent Afrikaner, initially ill at ease in the ‘last outpost of the British Empire’, as Durban has humorously been called.
1993 Sunday Nation 8 Aug. 30So why come to Durban, the ‘Last Outpost’..?
In full the Last Outpost of the British Empire:a jocular name for the province of Natal (now KwaZulu-Natal), or sometimes for the city of Durban, alluding to a perceived isolationism, and a supposed adherence to all things British, among its English-speaking inhabitants. Also attributive.
Derivatives:
Hence Last Outposter  noun phrase, an inhabitant of KwaZulu-Natal.
1992 W. Knowler in Weekend Mercury 4 Jan. 6New year saw the New South Africa cocking one helluva snook at the Last Outposters.
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Last Outposter

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