Dirk Cornelis "Dirkie" Uys (3 March 1823 – 9 April 1838) was a Voortrekker

hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or Physical strength, strength. The original hero type of classical epics did such thin ...

during the

Great Trek The Great Trek (, ) was a northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyond the Cape's British colonial adminis ...

. Uys was born in Swellendam in 1823, the son of Petrus Lafras Uys and Alida Maria Uys. After the massacre of Piet Retief and his men by Dingaan on 6 February 1838, a number of Voortrekker camps were also attacked by the Zulu

impi is a Nguni word meaning war or combat and by association any body of men gathered for war, for example is a term denoting an army. were formed from regiments () from large militarised homesteads (). In English is often used to refer to a ...

s. These Voortrekkers appealed to other treks, particularly those of Piet Uys and Hendrik Potgieter in the

Orange Free State The Orange Free State ( ; ) was an independent Boer-ruled sovereign republic under British suzerainty in Southern Africa during the second half of the 19th century, which ceased to exist after it was defeated and surrendered to the British Em ...

, for help. Both treks send out

commando A commando is a combatant, or operative of an elite light infantry or special operations force, specially trained for carrying out raids and operating in small teams behind enemy lines. Originally, "a commando" was a type of combat unit, as oppo ...

s to help, including Uys' fifteen-year-old son, Dirkie. During the subsequent Battle of Italeni, Piet Uys was mortally wounded by an assegai while riding to the rescue of two of his cornered men. The rescue party failed. Opinions of what happened next differ: According to the most common version (mostly told by people who had not been present at the battle), Dirkie Uys was ahead of his father with most of the party when he heard his father ordering one of his men to leave him where he had fallen. Seeing the Zulus closing in on his father, Dirkie Uys turned around his horse, shouting "I will die with my father", and charged. He shot three Zulu warriors, briefly forcing them to retreat, but they rushed at him and stabbed him off his horse. Dirkie Uys fell beside his father, where they were both stabbed to death. This version of events is depicted on one of the historical

frieze In classical architecture, the frieze is the wide central section of an entablature and may be plain in the Ionic order, Ionic or Corinthian order, Corinthian orders, or decorated with bas-reliefs. Patera (architecture), Paterae are also ...

s of the Voortrekker Monument.

Sources

*Ian S. Uys
"The Battle of Italeni"
South African Military History Society. Afrikaner people South African people of Dutch descent Great Trek 1823 births 1838 deaths People from Swellendam {{SouthAfrica-bio-stub