Sir Benjamin D'Urban ( English Benjamin D'Urban ; 1777 , Halesworth, Suffolk, England - May 25, 1849 , Montreal , Canada) - British diplomat and military leader, governor general of the Cape Colony , administrator of South Africa and Canada. In honor of him, the major metropolis of Durban and the city of Durbanville are named.
Biography
Benjamin D'Urban was born in Halesworth near Norwich . He was a descendant of the French Huguenots who fled to England from the violence and oppression of Louis XIV .
D'Urban participated in the Napoleonic Wars.
On January 16, 1834 , in the midst of the Sixth Border War, he was appointed governor of the Cape Colony, succeeding Lowbraith Lowry Cole in this position. He managed to end the war in favor of Britain by founding the Queen Adelaide Province (for more information on the then administrative borders, see en: British Kaffraria ), located between the coast, the former border of the Cape Colony and the Big Cay River . The province lasted from May to December 1835, after which D'Urban ceded the land to loyal black tribes.
Initially, D'Urban enjoyed the respect and support of the “Cape Dutch” , many of whom were also descendants of the Huguenots. However, he lacked flexibility - and in his governorship there was a massive relocation of the Boers to the east. In 1837, Peter Retif, a drill of Huguenot origin, published a manifesto explaining the need for the Calvinist Boers to emigrate from the Union Jack canopy and move deeper into Africa. In February of the same year, Retif, along with his supporters and members of their families, began the Great Track .
Not receiving support from London, D'Urban was forced to resolve conflicts on his own on the spot. He was faced with growing obstacles, and despite the promotion in 1837 to the rank of lieutenant governor, the next year he resigned from the post of governor. He continued to serve in South Africa as a military man, and in 1846 he was transferred to the post of commander of the British troops in North America.
Died in Montreal. His grandson William ( de: William Stewart Mitchell d'Urban ) was a famous Canadian and British biologist and archaeologist.
Literature
- Rosenthal, Eric , Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa , Juta and Company Limited, Kaapstad en Johannesburg, 1978.