Pretorius, Andries Wilhelmus Jacobus (1799-1853)

Dutch soldier and settler in South Africa, leader of the 1838 Boer trek into Natal. With a small force of farmers Pretorius defeated Dingaan's Zulu army of 30,000 at the battle of Blood River on 16 December 1838. This led to the setting up of a republic of Natal, with Pretorius as first president of the first Volksraad of Natal and chief commandant of its forces.

Alarmed by Pretorius's actions, George Napier, the Cape governor, sent troops to Durban and annexed Natal. Offers of farms were made to the Boers, but a considerable number of them re-crossed the Drakensberg under the leadership of Pretorius and set up new republics between the Orange and Vaal rivers. But on 3 February 1848 the governor, Harry Smith, proclaimed the annexation of the entire region between those rivers as far east as the Drakensberg. Recalcitrant Boers, led by Pretorius, were defeated at Boomplaats on 28 August 1848 and Pretorius fled across the Vaal with a price upon his head.

The South African city of Pretoria, founded by his son, Marthinus Wessels Pretorius, was named in his honour.