Paul Kruger
Politician
Prominent political figure from South Africa. From 1883-1900, he served as President of the South African Republic. He became known as Uncle Paul, the face of the Boer movement against Britain. He played an important role in helping to forge South Africa as a republic.
At the age of 17, he was elected to serve as a deputy field cornet, a position that combined the civilian duties of a magistrate with the military ranking of a junior commissioned officer.
Although he has been accused of being "an anachronistic throwback," his supporters paint him as a folk hero.
He was born near the eastern edge of the Cape Colony to Casper Jan Hendrik Kruger and his wife Elsje Steyn. He was their third child and second son, and he had almost no formal education outside of the Bible. He married Maria du Plessis in 1842. She and their first child died of fever by January of 1846. In 1847, he remarried her cousin, Gezina du Plessis.
He is rumored to have had an audience with Queen Victoria.