Benjamin d'Urban

Information about Benjamin d'Urban

Major-General Sir Benjamin d'Urban (1777- 25 May, 1849) was a British general and colonial administrator, who is best known for his frontier policy when he was the Governor in the Cape Colony (now in South Africa).

d'Urban was born in Halesworth, and joined the British Army in 1793, enlisting as a cornet in the Queen's Bays at the age of sixteen. He made rapid progress in the Army and distinguished himself in the Peninsular War where he was quarter master general and chief of staff to William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford. He served in all the principle sieges and battles, never asked to go on leave and was laden with honors including Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath.

In 1819, d'Urban was made Governor of Antigua. In 1824 he became lieutenant governor of Demerara-Essequibo, where in 1831 he carried out the amalgamation with Berbice to form British Guiana, of which he was its first governor (1831-33). Three years later he was appointed to the post of Governor of the Cape Colony.

In January 1834 in South Africa d'Urban took office as governor and commander in chief of the Cape Colony. His administration was complicated by the exodus of Dutch farmers to the far north and east (known as the Great Trek) and the outbreak of the Cape Frontier Wars of (1834-1835) created by incursions of Bantu-speaking Xhosa peoples. He drove back the invaders and annexed the territory between the Keiskamma and Great Kei (Groot-Kei) rivers. He abolished slavery, established municipal and legislative councils, occupied Natal, now KwaZulu-Natal, and named it as a new colony for the British Empire. To commemorate this the name of the principal port was changed in 1835 from Port Natal to Durban.

Although d'Urban was popular with the white colonists, his treatment of the Africans disturbed John Philip who went to England to gave evidence before a parliamentary committee and aroused public opinion against d'Urban. The public outcry influenced Charles Grant, 1st Baron Glenelg, the colonial secretary. In a despatch dated May 1, 1837, Glenelg dismissed D'Urban, who remained governor until the arrival of his successor in January 1838 and continued in his military capacity in South Africa until 1846.

In 1842 d'Urban declined a high military appointment in British Raj India offered him by Sir Robert Peel.

In January 1847 he accepted appointment as commander of Her Majesty's forces in British North America. There were border disputes and a threat of invasion by the United States into Canada near Montreal. Early in 1847 he set up his headquarters in Montreal.

He remained in Montreal until his death in 1849. He was originally buried at the Papineau military cemetery in Montreal. However, the graves had to be moved because they were in the way of building a new access ramp to the Jacques-Cartier bridge. Sir d'Urban's remains now rest at the National Field of Honour, a military cemetery owned by the Last Post Fund in Pointe Claire where there is an obelisk to his memory.
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May 25 is the 1st day of the year (2nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 0 days remaining.

Events

  • 1085 - Alfonso VI of Castile takes Toledo back from the Moors.

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See also: 1848 in South Africa, other events of 1849, 1850 in South Africa and the Timeline of South African history.

Events

  • The British propose to ship convicts to the Cape Colony, but the Cape population strongly object and it is squashed with the help of

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British Empire was the largest empire in history and for a substantial time was the foremost global power. It was a product of the European age of discovery, which began with the maritime explorations of the 15th century, that sparked the era of the European colonial empires.
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A General Officer is an officer of high military rank. The term is used by nearly every country in the world. General can be used as a generic term for all grades of general officer, or it can specifically refer to a single rank that is just called General.
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An Administrator (Administrator of the Government, Officer Administering the Government) in the constitutional practice of some countries in the Commonwealth is a person who fulfills a role similar to that of a Governor or a Governor-General.
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The Cape Colony of the future South Africa was established by the Dutch East India Company (not by the Netherlands, as is often mistakenly presumed) in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town.
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The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with unification of the governments and armed forces of England and Scotland into the United Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707.
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cornet is a brass instrument that visually resembles the trumpet. It is not to be confused with the Medieval instrument, the cornett or cornetto. It differs from the trumpet in that it has a conical bore, a compact shape, and a mellower tone quality.
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Peninsular War(i) pitted an alliance of Spain, Portugal, and United Kingdom against France on the Iberian Peninsula during the Napoleonic Wars. The war began when French armies occupied Spain in 1808 and lasted until the Sixth Coalition defeated Napoleon in 1814.
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William Carr Beresford, 1st Viscount Beresford GCB GCH (October 2, 1768 – January 8, 1854), British soldier and politician.

A general in the British Army and a marshal in the Portuguese army, who fought with the Duke of Wellington in the Peninsular War and in 1828 held
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The Most Honourable Order of the Bath (formerly The Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath)[1] is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on May 18, 1725.
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Antigua (pronounced /ænˈtiːgə//an-tee-gah) is an island in the West Indies, Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region, the main island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. It is also known as Wadadli, which means approximately "our own".
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The colony of Demerara-Essequibo was created on 13 August 1814 when the British combined the colonies of Demerara and Essequibo. On 20 November 1815 the colony was formally ceded to Britain by the Netherlands.

On 21 July 1831 Demerara-Essequibo united with Berbice as British Guiana.
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Berbice is a region in Guyana, sometimes known as the "ancient county." The Berbice River runs through it. It is a former Dutch colony, as is evidenced by the existence of the nearly extinct Berbice Creole Dutch ( based on lexicon and grammar on the West African language of Ijo).
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British Guiana was the name of the British colony on the northern coast of South America, now the independent nation of Guyana.

The area was originally settled by the Dutch as the colonies of Essequibo, Demerara, and Berbice.
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The Cape Colony of the future South Africa was established by the Dutch East India Company (not by the Netherlands, as is often mistakenly presumed) in 1652, with the founding of Cape Town.
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25 million - 28 million (with Flemings: - 34 million) (14,000,000 - 15,000,000 with full Dutch ancestry) (Red → Dutch-born) (Green → Reported ancestry)
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Great Trek was an eastward and north-eastward migration during the 1830s and 1840s of the segment of Afrikaners (known as Boers or Boere (Dutch/Afrikaans for "farmers"), who descended from settlers from western mainland Europe, most notably from the Netherlands.
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The Xhosa Wars, also known as the Kaffir Wars or Cape Frontier Wars, were a series of nine wars between the amaXhosa people and European settlers from 1779 and 1879 in what is now the Eastern Cape in South Africa.
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