Benjamin D'Urban
Sir Benjamin D'Urban | |
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Knight Commander of the Royal Guelphic Order |
Early career
D'Urban was born in
Brigadier General D'Urban was given command of a Portuguese cavalry brigade consisting of the 1st, 11th and 12th Dragoons.[2] At the Battle of Salamanca on 22 July 1812, D'Urban's troopers performed well while assisting the 3rd Division's attack on the French left flank. During the Siege of Burgos campaign, D'Urban's horsemen were routed in an action at Majadahonda (Las Rozas)[3] on 11 August, losing 108 men.[4] His brigade was present but not engaged at the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813.
Foreign service
In 1819, D'Urban was made Governor of
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) due to clashes between the colonists and the Bantu-speaking Xhosa peoples. He drove back the Xhosa people and annexed the territory between the Keiskamma and Great Kei (Groot-Kei) rivers. He was in office when the British government 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.
Trouble
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Although D'Urban was popular with the white colonists, his treatment of the Xhosa people and other Africans in South Africa disturbed John Philip, who went to England to give 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 1 May 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.
Later career
| This section needs additional citations for verification. (December 2022) |
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 by the Fenians. 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 Benjamin D'Urban's remains now rest at the Last Post Fund National Field of Honour, a military cemetery owned by the Last Post Fund in Pointe-Claire where there is an obelisk to his memory.[6]
On the obelisk, there are four plaques: a memorial plaque from the officers of the British Army serving in Canada, a second memorial plaque donated by the City of Durban, one explaining the exhumation and reburial by the Last Post Fund, and one explaining the reburial of the other remains in D'Urban Circle.
References
- ^ D'Urban 1930, p. 16.
- ^ Glover 2001, p. 380.
- ^ Oman 1913, p. 235.
- ^ Smith 1998, p. 385.
- ^ "51st (2nd Yorkshire West Riding) Regiment". regiments.org. Archived from the original on 18 April 2007. Retrieved 16 July 2016.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ Kalbfleisch, John (23 September 2008). "Hero of the Napoleonic wars was finally laid to rest in 1944". Montreal Gazette. Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Archived from the original on 6 October 2011. Retrieved 17 March 2009.
Sources
- D'Urban, Benjamin (1930). The Peninsular Journal Of Major-General Sir Benjamin D'Urban: 1808–1817. London: Longmans & Co. ISBN 978-1-78625-499-3.
- Glover, Michael (2001). The Peninsular War, 1807-1814: A Concise Military History. London: Penguin. ISBN 978-0-14-139041-3.
- Oman, Charles (1913). Wellington's Army, 1809-1814. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 978-0-947898-41-0.
- Smith, Digby George (1998). The Greenhill Napoleonic Wars Data Book. London: Greenhill Books. ISBN 978-1-85367-276-7.
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| British colony 1814–1910 |
Those in italics were Acting Governors
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