Thomas Upington
Thomas Upington (born October 28, 1844 in Rathnee near Mallow , County Cork , † December 10, 1898 in Wynberg , Cape Colony ) was Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1884 to 1886.
Life
Upington studied law at Trinity College , Dublin . He came to the Cape Colony in 1874 and was appointed attorney general. Thomas Upington founded an Irish volunteer group in 1878, which consisted of around 30 men and was called "Upington's Foot". The troop took part in the " Ninth Kaffir War ", which was a rebellion of the Gaika and Galeka in Transkei . Upington received the "South Africa Medal 1877-9" for this.
In 1884 he was appointed Prime Minister with the help of the Afrikaner Bond, a party of the Boers . He got into a conflict when the British colonial administration wanted to take action against the Boer republic United States of Stellaland , but he could not support this consistently because of his dependence on the African Bond . He resigned in 1886 in favor of Gordon Sprigg , but initially remained Minister of Justice.
Honors
The city of Upington in the North Cape Province was named after Thomas Upington on the occasion of his visit in 1884. The small Boer republic of Upingtonia with the capital Grootfontein was founded in 1885 in what is now Namibia ; it went up in 1887 in German South West Africa .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Irish soldiers in South Africa , accessed March 25, 2013
- ↑ PE Reiper: "Dictionary of names of places in South Africa" (article "Upington") . Lowry Publishing House, 1987.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Upington, Thomas |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Cape Colony politician and prime minister |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 28, 1844 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rathnee , County Cork |
| DATE OF DEATH | December 10, 1898 |
| Place of death | Wynberg , Cape Colony |