Thomas Upington

Sir Thomas Upington KCMG (1844–1898), born in Cork, Ireland, was an administrator and politician of the Cape Colony.

He was briefly Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, between 1884 and 1886, during a period of extreme turbulence in the Cape's history.

The town of Upington in the Northern Cape is named after him, as was the short-lived Boer republic of Upingtonia.

Upington was born in Rathnee, near Mallow, County Cork, on 28 October 1844. He was educated at Cloyne Diocesan School, Mallow, and at Trinity College Dublin, where in 1863 he obtained Mathematical Honours in the Hilary term examinations.

He was called to the Irish Bar in 1867. In 1868 he became secretary to Thomas O'Hagan, 1st Baron O'Hagan, Lord Chancellor of Ireland, and in January 1870 he appeared as registrar to the court in Dr MacSwiney's appeal to the Visitors of the King and Queen's College of Physicians against his ejection from a fellowship.

Upington emigrated to the Cape Colony in 1874, due to his fragile health, from which he suffered throughout his life.

He was elected to the Cape Legislature in 1878 and stood for several constituencies in turn; Colesberg (1878–83), Caledon (1884–91), and Swellendam (1896–98). Throughout his political career he was exceptionally close to his friend and ally John Gordon Sprigg, and served regularly as Attorney General in Sprigg's governments (1878–81, 1886–90, 1896–98)

He was appointed Attorney General in 1879, by his ally, Prime Minister Gordon Sprigg.