Sir Rufane
Donkin, Governor at the Cape
Sir Rufane Shaw
Donkin GCH KCB FRS FRGS (1773 – 1 May 1841), was a British army officer of the
Napoleonic era and later a Member of Parliament.
Family
Rufane Donkin came of a military family and was the eldest
child. His father, who reached the rank of a full general, served with many
famous British commanders including Wolfe and Gage. The younger Donkin received
his first commission at the age of five as an honour post in his father's
regiment.
Service
Becoming a captain in 1793, Donkin was on active service in
the West Indies in the next year, gaining promotion to major in 1796. At the
age of twenty-five he became a lieutenant-colonel and in 1798 led a light
battalion with distinction in the Ostend expedition. He served with Cathcart in
Denmark in 1807 and two years later was given a brigade of three regiments in
the army in Portugal, which he led in victory at the Second Battle of Porto. On
the day prior of the Battle of Talavera, Donkin's brigade was positioned ahead
of the main British army and was surprised by an advance French force before
they could post pickets losing over 400 casualties. He fell back and rallied
the men at the main line and led the brigade throughout the battle.
Donkin was then transferred, in the role of
quartermaster-general, to the Mediterranean command in which he served from
1810 to 1813 taking part in the Catalonian expeditions. In July 1815, the now
Major-General Donkin was posted to India distinguishing himself as a divisional
commander in Hasting's operations against the Mahrattas (1817–1818), receiving
the KCB as his reward.
The death of his young wife seriously affected him after
which he went to the Cape of Good Hope on extended sick leave. From 1820 to
1821 he administered the colony with success, and named the rising seaport of
Algoa Bay Port Elizabeth in memory of his late wife.
In 1821 he became lieutenant-general and GCH.
Post Army
The rest of his life was spent in literary and political
work. He was one of the original fellows of the Royal Geographical Society, and
was a member of the Royal Society and of many other learned bodies. His
theories as to the course of the River Niger, published under the title
Dissertation on the Course and Probable Termination of the Niger (London,
1829), involved him in a good deal of controversy.
From 1832 to 1837 he sat in
the House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
in 1835 was made Surveyor-General of the Ordnance. He was elected as MP for
Sandwich in 1839, and held that seat until he committed suicide at Southampton
on 1 May 1841. He was then a general, and colonel of the 11th Regiment of Foot.
Rufane Donkin was a cousin of Charles Collier Michell, surveyor-general
of the Cape Colony.
(information derived from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufane_Shaw_Donkin)
