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Sir Leander Starr Jameson, 1st Baronet, (9 February 1853 – 26 November 1917), was a British colonial
politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, ...
, who was best known for his involvement in the ill-fated Jameson Raid.


Early life and family

He was born on 9 February 1853, of the Jameson family of
Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
, the son of Robert William Jameson (1805–1868), a Writer to the Signet, and Christian Pringle, daughter of Major-General Pringle of
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. Robert William and Christian Jameson had twelve children, of whom Leander Starr was the youngest, born at
Stranraer Stranraer ( , in Scotland also ; gd, An t-Sròn Reamhar ), also known as The Toon, is a town in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. It is located in the historical parish of Inch in the historic county of Wigtownshire. It lies on the shores of ...
,
Wigtownshire Wigtownshire or the County of Wigtown (, ) is one of the historic counties of Scotland, covering an area in the south-west of the country. Until 1975, Wigtownshire was an administrative county used for local government. Since 1975 the area has f ...
(now part of
Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the historic counties of Dumfriesshire, Kirkc ...
), in the south-west of Scotland, a great-nephew of
Professor Robert Jameson Robert Jameson Robert Jameson FRS FRSE (11 July 1774 – 19 April 1854) was a Scottish naturalist and mineralogist. As Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh for fifty years, developing his predecessor Joh ...
,
Regius Professor A Regius Professor is a university professor who has, or originally had, royal patronage or appointment. They are a unique feature of academia in the United Kingdom and Ireland. The first Regius Professorship was in the field of medicine, and ...
of Natural History at the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1 ...
. Fort's biography of Jameson notes that Starr's "chief Gamaliel, however, was a Professor Grant, a man of advanced age, who had been a pupil of his great-uncle, the Professor of Natural History at Edinburgh." Leander Starr Jameson's somewhat unusual name resulted from the fact that his father Robert William Jameson had been rescued from drowning on the morning of his birth by an
American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...
traveller, who fished him out of a canal or river with steep banks into which William had fallen while on a walk awaiting the birth of his son. The stranger named Leander Starr was promptly made a godfather of the baby, who was named after him. His father, Robert William, started his career as an advocate in Edinburgh, and was Writer to the Signet, before becoming a playwright, published poet and editor of ''The Wigtownshire Free Press''. A radical and reformist, Robert William Jameson was the author of the dramatic poem ''Nimrod'' (1848) and ''Timoleon'', a tragedy in five acts informed by the anti-slavery movement. ''Timoleon'' was performed at the
Adelphi Theatre The Adelphi Theatre is a West End theatre, located on the Strand in the City of Westminster, central London. The present building is the fourth on the site. The theatre has specialised in comedy and musical theatre, and today it is a receivin ...
in Edinburgh in 1852, and ran to a second edition. In due course, the Jameson family moved to London, living in Chelsea and
Kensington Kensington is a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensington Garden ...
. Leander Starr Jameson went to the
Godolphin School Godolphin School is an independent boarding and day school for girls in Salisbury, England, which was founded in 1726 and opened in 1784. The school educates girls between the ages of three and eighteen. History Godolphin was founded by Eliz ...
in
Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London ...
, where he did well in both lessons and games prior to his university education. L. S. Jameson was educated for the medical profession at
University College Hospital University College Hospital (UCH) is a teaching hospital in the Fitzrovia area of the London Borough of Camden, England. The hospital, which was founded as the North London Hospital in 1834, is closely associated with University College Lon ...
, London, for which he passed his entrance examinations in January 1870. He distinguished himself as a medical student, becoming a Gold Medallist in '' materia medica''. After qualifying as a doctor, he was made Resident Medical Officer at University College Hospital (M.R.C.S. 1875; M.D. 1877). After acting as house physician, house surgeon and demonstrator of anatomy, and showing promise of a successful professional career in London, his health broke down from overwork in 1878, and he went out to
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...
and settled down in practice at Kimberley. There he rapidly acquired a great reputation as a medical man, and, besides numbering
President Kruger Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger (; 10 October 1825 – 14 July 1904) was a South African politician. He was one of the dominant political and military figures in 19th-century South Africa, and President of the South African Republic (or ...
and the Matabele chief
Lobengula Lobengula Khumalo (c. 1845 – presumed January 1894) was the second and last official king of the Northern Ndebele people (historically called Matabele in English). Both names in the Ndebele language mean "the men of the long shields", a refer ...
among his patients, came much into contact with
Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Bri ...
. Jameson was for some time the inDuna of the Matabele king's favourite regiment, the Imbeza. Lobengula expressed his delight with Jameson's successful medical treatment of his gout by honouring him with the rare status of inDuna. Although Jameson was a white man, he underwent the initiation ceremonies linked with this honour. Jameson's status as an inDuna gave him advantages, and in 1888 he successfully exerted his influence with Lobengula to induce the chieftain to grant the concessions to the agents of Rhodes which led to the formation of the
British South Africa Company The British South Africa Company (BSAC or BSACo) was chartered in 1889 following the amalgamation of Cecil Rhodes' Central Search Association and the London-based Exploring Company Ltd, which had originally competed to capitalize on the expect ...
; and when the company proceeded to open up
Mashonaland Mashonaland is a region in northern Zimbabwe. Currently, Mashonaland is divided into four provinces, * Mashonaland West * Mashonaland Central * Mashonaland East * Harare The Zimbabwean capital of Harare, a province unto itself, lies entirely ...
, Jameson abandoned his medical practice and joined the pioneer expedition of 1890. From this time his fortunes were bound up with Rhodes' schemes in the north. Immediately after the pioneer column had occupied Mashonaland, Jameson, with F. C. Selous and A. R. Colquhoun, went east to
Manicaland Manicaland is a province in eastern Zimbabwe. After Harare Province, it is the country's second-most populous province, with a population of 2.037 million, as of the 2022 census. After Harare and Bulawayo provinces, it is Zimbabwe's third-most ...
and was instrumental in securing the greater part of the country, to which
Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic ( pt, República Portuguesa, links=yes ), is a country whose mainland is located on the Iberian Peninsula of Southwestern Europe, and whose territory also includes the Atlantic archipelagos of th ...
was laying claim, for the Chartered Company. In 1891 Jameson succeeded Colquhoun as Administrator of Mashonaland. In 1893, Jameson was a key figure in the
First Matabele War The First Matabele War was fought between 1893 and 1894 in modern-day Zimbabwe. It pitted the British South Africa Company against the Ndebele (Matabele) Kingdom. Lobengula, king of the Ndebele, had tried to avoid outright war with the compa ...
and involved in incidents that led to the massacre of the Shangani Patrol.


Character

Jameson's character seems to have inspired a degree of devotion from his contemporaries. Elizabeth Longford writes of him, "Whatever one felt about him or his projects when he was not there, one could not help falling for the man in his presence.... People attached themselves to Jameson with extraordinary fervour, the more extraordinary because he made no effort to feed it. He affected an attitude of tough cynicism towards life, literature and any articulate form of idealism, particularly towards the hero-worship which he himself excited ... When he died ''The Times'' estimated that his astonishing personal hold over his followers had been equalled only by that of Parnell, the Irish patriot." Longford also notes that
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)'' The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...
wrote the poem " If—" with Leander Starr Jameson in mind as an inspiration for the characteristics he recommended young people to live by (notably Kipling's son, to whom the poem is addressed in the last lines). Longford writes, "Jameson was later to be the inspiration and hero of Rudyard Kipling's poem, ''If''...". Direct evidence that the poem "If—" was written about Jameson is available also in Rudyard Kipling's autobiography in which Kipling writes that "If—" was "drawn from Jameson's character." In 1895, Jameson led about 500 of his countrymen in what became known as the Jameson Raid against the
Boers Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this a ...
in southern Africa. The Jameson Raid was later cited by
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 187424 January 1965) was a British statesman, soldier, and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom twice, from 1940 to 1945 during the Second World War, and again from ...
as a major factor in bringing about the
Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sou ...
of 1899 to 1902. But the story as recounted in Britain was quite different. The British defeat was interpreted as a victory and Jameson was portrayed as a daring hero. The poem celebrates heroism, dignity, stoicism and courage in the face of the disaster of the failed Jameson Raid, for which he was made a scapegoat. Jameson's persuasive character, what became known later as 'the Jameson charm', was described in some detail by , who writes of his restless, logical and sagacious temperament in this way:
... It was not his wont to talk at length, nor was he, unless exceptionally interested, a good listener. He was so logical and so quick to grasp a situation, that he would often cut short exposition by some forcible remark or personal raillery that would all too often quite disconcert the speaker. Despite his adventurous career, mere reminiscences obviously bored him; he was always for movement, for some betterment of present or future conditions, and in discussion he was a master of the art of persuasion, unconsciously creating in those around him a latent desire to follow, if he would lead. The source of such persuasive influence eludes analysis, and, like the mystery of leadership, is probably more psychic than mental. In this latter respect, Jameson was splendidly equipped; he had greater power of concentration, of logical reasoning, and of rapid diagnosis, while on his lighter side he was brilliant in repartee and in the exercise of a badinage that was both cynical and personal... ... He wrapped himself in cynicism as with a cloak, not only to protect himself against his own quick human sympathy, but to conceal the austere standard of duty and honour that he always set to himself. He was ever trying to hide from his friends his real attitude towards life, and the high estimate he placed upon accepted ethical values... He was essentially a patriot who sought for himself neither wealth, nor power, nor fame, nor leisure, nor even an easy anchorage for reflection. The wide sphere of his work and achievements, and the accepted dominion of his personality and his influence were both based upon his adherence to the principle of always subordinating personal considerations to the work in hand, upon the loyalty of his service to big ideals. His whole life seems to illustrate the truth of the saying that in self-regard and self-centredness there is no profit, and that only in sacrificing himself for impersonal aims can a man save his soul and benefit his fellow men.
A less flattering view is given in Antony Thomas's ''Rhodes'' (1996), in which Jameson is portrayed as unscrupulous.


The Jameson Raid

In 1895, Jameson assembled a private army outside the Transvaal in preparation for the violent overthrow of the Boer government. The idea was to foment unrest among foreign workers (''
Uitlanders Uitlander, Afrikaans for "foreigner" (lit. "outlander"), was a foreign (mainly British) migrant worker during the Witwatersrand Gold Rush in the independent Transvaal Republic following the discovery of gold in 1886. The limited rights granted to ...
'') in the territory, and use the outbreak of open revolt as an excuse to invade and annex the territory. In November 1895, a piece of territory of strategic importance, the Pitsani Strip, part of the
Bechuanaland Protectorate The Bechuanaland Protectorate () was a protectorate established on 31 March 1885, by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (later the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) in Southern Africa. It became the Republic ...
and bordering the Transvaal, was ceded to the
British South Africa Company The British South Africa Company (BSAC or BSACo) was chartered in 1889 following the amalgamation of Cecil Rhodes' Central Search Association and the London-based Exploring Company Ltd, which had originally competed to capitalize on the expect ...
by the Colonial Office, overtly for the protection of a railway running through the territory.
Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Bri ...
, the Prime Minister of the Cape Colony and managing director of the company was eager to bring South Africa under British dominion, and encouraged the disenfranchised Uitlanders of the Boer republics to resist
Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Cast ...
domination. Rhodes hoped that the intervention of the company's private army could spark an Uitlander uprising, leading to the overthrow of the Transvaal government. Rhodes' forces were assembled in the Pitsani Strip for this purpose. Joseph Chamberlain informed Salisbury on
Boxing Day Boxing Day is a holiday celebrated after Christmas Day, occurring on the second day of Christmastide (26 December). Though it originated as a holiday to give gifts to the poor, today Boxing Day is primarily known as a shopping holiday. It ...
that an uprising was expected, and was aware that an invasion would be launched, but was not sure when. The subsequent Jameson Raid was a debacle, leading to the invading force's surrender. Chamberlain, at Highbury Hall, his home in
Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the We ...
, received a secret telegram from the Colonial Office on 31 December informing him of the beginning of the Raid. Though sympathetic to the ultimate goals of the Raid, Chamberlain was uncomfortable with the timing of the invasion and remarked "if this succeeds it will ruin me. I'm going up to London to crush it". He swiftly travelled by train to the Colonial Office, ordering Sir Hercules Robinson, Governor of the Cape Colony, to repudiate the actions of Jameson and warned Rhodes that the company's Charter would be in danger if it were discovered that the Cape Prime Minister were involved in the Raid. The prisoners were returned to London for trial, and the Transvaal government received considerable compensation from the company. Jameson was tried in England for leading the raid; during that time he was lionised by the press and London society.


The Jameson Raid trial

The Jameson Raiders arrived in England at the end of February, 1896 to face prosecution under the Foreign Enlistment Act 1870 styled ''R. v Jameson, Willoughby and others''.The National Archives: "Queen's Bench: R v Leander Starr Jameson, Sir John Christopher Willoughby Bt, Henry..." TS 36/102
/ref> There were some months of investigations initially held at
Bow Street Magistrates' Court Bow Street Magistrates' Court became one of the most famous magistrates' court in England. Over its 266-year existence it occupied various buildings on Bow Street in Central London, immediately north-east of Covent Garden. It closed in 2006 a ...
, following which the trial at bar (a trial in front of multiple judges instead of a jury) began on 20 June 1896, at the High Court. The trial lasted seven days, following which Dr Jameson was "found guilty and sentenced to imprisonment as a first-class misdemeanant for fifteen months. He was, however, released from Holloway in the following December on account of illness." During the trial of Jameson, Rhodes' solicitor, Bourchier Hawksley, refused to produce cablegrams that had passed between Rhodes and his agents in London during November and December 1895. According to Hawksley, these demonstrated that the Colonial Office 'influenced the actions of those in South Africa' who embarked on the Raid, and even that Chamberlain had transferred control of the Pitsani Strip to facilitate an invasion. Nine days before the Raid, Chamberlain had asked his Assistant Under-Secretary to encourage Rhodes to "hurry up" because of the developing
Venezuela Crisis of 1895 The Venezuelan crisis of 1895 occurred over Venezuela's longstanding dispute with the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland about the territory of Essequibo and Guayana Esequiba, which Britain claimed as part of British Guiana and Venezue ...
. The conduct of Dr Jameson during the trial was graphically described by , an eyewitness account of her observations during the Jameson Raid trial. She wrote: Jameson was sentenced to fifteen months in gaol, but was soon pardoned. In June 1896, Chamberlain, British Colonial Secretary of the day, offered his resignation to Lord Salisbury, having shown the
Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is ...
one or more of the cablegrams implicating him in the Raid's planning. Salisbury refused to accept the offer, possibly reluctant to lose the government's most popular figure. Salisbury reacted aggressively in support of Chamberlain, supporting the Colonial Secretary's threat to withdraw the company's charter if the cablegrams were revealed. Accordingly, Rhodes refused to reveal the cablegrams, and as no evidence was produced showing that Chamberlain was complicit in the Raid's planning, the Select Committee appointed to investigate the events surrounding the Raid had no choice but to absolve Chamberlain of all responsibility. Jameson had been Administrator General for Matabeleland at the time of the Raid and his intrusion into Transvaal depleted Matabeleland of many of its troops and left the whole territory vulnerable. Seizing on this weakness, and a discontent with the
British South Africa Company The British South Africa Company (BSAC or BSACo) was chartered in 1889 following the amalgamation of Cecil Rhodes' Central Search Association and the London-based Exploring Company Ltd, which had originally competed to capitalize on the expect ...
, the Matabele revolted in March 1896 in what is now celebrated in
Zimbabwe Zimbabwe (), officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country located in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the south-west, Zambia to the north, and ...
as the First War of Independence – the Second Matabele War. Hundreds of white settlers were killed within the first few weeks and many more would die over the next year and a half at the hands of both the Matabele and the Shona. With few troops to support them, the settlers had to quickly build a laager in the centre of Bulawayo on their own. Against over 50,000 Matabele held up in their stronghold of the Matobo Hills as the settlers mounted patrols under
Burnham Burnham may refer to: Places Canada *Burnham, Saskatchewan England *Burnham, Buckinghamshire ** Burnham railway station **Burnham Grammar School *Burnham Green, Hertfordshire, location of The White Horse * Burnham, Lincolnshire **High Burnham, I ...
,
Baden-Powell Lieutenant-General Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell, 1st Baron Baden-Powell, ( ; (Commonly pronounced by others as ) 22 February 1857 – 8 January 1941) was a British Army officer, writer, founder and first Chief Scout of the worl ...
, and Selous. After the Matabele laid down their arms, the war continued until October 1897 in Mashonaland.


Later political career

Despite the Raid, Jameson had a successful political life following the invasion, receiving many honours in later life. In 1903 Jameson was put forward as the leader of the Progressive (British) Party in the Cape Colony. When the party was successful he served as
Prime Minister of the Cape Colony This article lists the governors of British South African colonies, including the colonial prime ministers. It encompasses the period from 1797 to 1910, when present-day South Africa was divided into four British colonies namely: Cape Colony ( ...
from 1904 to 1908. His government was unique in Cape history, as being the only Ministry to be composed exclusively of British politicians. During the Conference of Colonial Premiers held in London in March 1907, he was made a Privy Counsellor. He served as the leader of the
Unionist Party (South Africa) The Unionist Party ( af, Unionisteparty, UP) was a pre-apartheid South African political party, which contested elections to the Union of South Africa parliament from the 1910 South African general election until its merger into the South African ...
from its founding in 1910 until 1912. Jameson was created a
baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...
in 1911 and returned to England in 1912. According to Rudyard Kipling, his famous poem " If—" was written in celebration of Jameson's personal qualities at overcoming the difficulties of the Raid, for which he largely took the blame, though Joseph Chamberlain, British Colonial Secretary of the day, was, according to some historians, implicated in the events of the raid. Jameson is buried alongside Rhodes at Malindidzimu Hill, a granite hill in the Matobo National Park, south of Bulawayo. It was designated by
Cecil Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes (5 July 1853 – 26 March 1902) was a British mining magnate and politician in southern Africa who served as Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1890 to 1896. An ardent believer in British imperialism, Rhodes and his Bri ...
as the resting place for those who served Great Britain well in Africa. Sir Leander Starr Jameson, 1st Bt., died on the afternoon of Monday, 26 November 1917, at his home, 2 Great Cumberland Place, Hyde Park, in
London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
. His body was laid in a vault at Kensal Green Cemetery on 29 November 1917, where it remained until the end of the First World War.


Biographies, portraits and honours

Jameson's life is the subject of a number of biographies, including ''The Life of Jameson'' by Ian Colvin (1922, Vol. 1 and 1923, Vol. 2), ''Dr. Jameson'' by G. Seymour Fort (1918), and ''The If Man'' by Chris Ash (2012). The Jameson Raid has been the subject of numerous articles and books, and remains a fascinating historical riddle more than one hundred years after the events of the Raid took place. There are three portraits of Jameson in the National Portrait Gallery in London. One of these was by one of his elder brothers, Middleton Jameson, R.A. (1851–1919), otherwise known as 'Midge', to whom he was devoted. Leander Starr Jameson was awarded the KCMG, the CB, the Freedom of the City of London, Freedom of the City of
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
, and Freedom of the
City of Edinburgh The City of Edinburgh Council is the local government authority for the city of Edinburgh, capital of Scotland. With a population of in mid-2019, it is the second most populous local authority area in Scotland. In its current form, the counci ...
for services to the
British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...
. During the colonial period, the Zambian town of
Chipata The city of Chipata is the administrative centre of the Eastern Province of Zambia and Chipata District. It was declared the 5th city of the country, after Lusaka, Ndola, Kitwe and Livingstone, by President Edgar Lungu on 24 February 2017. ...
was named "Fort Jameson" in Jameson's honour.


Later historical documents

To this day, the events surrounding Jameson's involvement in the Jameson Raid, being in general somewhat out of character with his prior history, the rest of his life and successful later political career, remain something of an enigma to historians. In 2002, The Van Riebeck Society published ''Sir Graham Bower’s Secret History of the Jameson Raid and the South African Crisis, 1895–1902'', adding to growing historical evidence that the imprisonment and judgment upon the Raiders at the time of their trial was an underhand move by the British government, a result of political manoeuvres by Joseph Chamberlain and his staff to hide his own involvement and knowledge of the Raid. In his review of ''Sir Graham Bower’s Secret History...'' Alan Cousins, notes that, "A number of major themes and concerns emerge" from Bower's history, "... perhaps the most poignant being
Sir Graham Bower Sir Graham John Bower (1848–1933), was an Irish colonial official of the British Empire. Bower was born in Ireland. After service in the Royal Navy, he was made Imperial secretary to the High Commissioner for Southern Africa, Sir Hercules ...
's accounts of his being made a scapegoat in the aftermath of the raid: 'since a scapegoat was wanted I was willing to serve my country in that capacity'." Cousins notes of Bower that 'a very clear sense of his rigid code of honour is plain, and a conviction that not only unity, peace and happiness in South Africa, but also the peace of Europe would be endangered if he told the truth. He believed that, as he had given Rhodes his word not to divulge certain private conversations, he had to abide by that, while at the same time he was convinced that it would be very damaging to Britain if he said anything to the parliamentary committee to show the close involvement of Sir Hercules Robinson and Joseph Chamberlain in their disreputable encouragement of those plotting an uprising in
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.' Finally, Cousins observes that, "...in his reflections, Bower has a particularly damning judgement on Chamberlain, whom he accuses of 'brazen lying' to parliament, and of what amounted to forgery in the documents made public for the inquiry. In the report of the committee, Bower was found culpable of complicity, while no blame was attached to Chamberlain or Robinson. His name was never cleared during his lifetime, and Bower was never reinstated to what he believed should be his proper position in the colonial service: he was, in effect, demoted to the post of colonial secretary in
Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...
. The bitterness and sense of betrayal he felt come through very clearly in his comments." Speculation on the true nature of the behind-the-scenes story of the Jameson Raid has therefore continued for more than a hundred years after the events, and carries on to this day.


References


Citations


Sources

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Further reading

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External links

*
"Rudyard Kipling and Baden-Powell: 'The Mafeking Connection, Part I'"
*

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Jameson, Leander Starr 1853 births 1917 deaths Artists' Rifles soldiers Jameson, Leander Starr, 1st Baronet British colonial governors and administrators in Africa British colonial judges in Africa Companions of the Order of the Bath Governors of Southern Rhodesia Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Members of the Pioneer Column South African members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom People educated at Sudbury Grammar School People from Stranraer People of the First Matabele War Prime Ministers of the Cape Colony Zimbabwean people of British descent