Sunday Boer War Cartoon

Today’s Boer War cartoon is a copy of an original by Harry Furniss, which appeared in The King on May 19^th 1900.

Harry Furniss is an artist illustrator whose work I have copied in the past. Harry Furniss was born in Ireland but worked for the most part of his career in England. He joined the staff of Punch in 1880 and stayed with the magazine for 14 years, before parting company with them after he sold a cartoon that had appeared in Punch first to Pears soap to use in their advertising.

Harry Furniss was reportedly very upset that he was too young to illustrate Alice in Wonderland when it was published. He did illustrate Carroll’s later Sylvie and Bruno books, but found it to be a very frustrating experience. When the Alice books did fall out of copyright, Furniss did illustrate Wonderland, and I made several copies of his illustrations. Here’s my copy of his illustration of Alice falling down the rabbit hole.

I don’t know “The King” magazine and I haven’t been able to find out any information about it. I would guess that it was one of many magazines that came along trying to grab a slice of the popularity of Punch and probably didn’t last very long. When Furniss’ attempts to create his own successful humour magazine floundered he moved to America, becoming a writer and actor in very early movies, and reputedly even making an animated film for Thomas Edison.

To the cartoon, then. I’ve been quite critical of the attitude expressed in many of the cartoons I’ve copied, but to be honest I really find this one quite objectionable. The point of the cartoon is to hail Lord Roberts, whose appointment as Commander in Chief of the British Empire forces had seen the tide of the war turn in favour of the Empire. The method Furniss used to do this was to compare the war to a grand military tournament. It puts me specifically in mind of the Royal Tournament, the world’s largest military pageant and tattoo staged annually from 1880 to 1999. I saw it a couple of times with my cub scout pack in the early 70s.

Comparing the bloody business of war to a military pageant is not something I can get in board with. But far, far worse than this is the central image of Lord Roberts, on horseback, plunging his sword into what one can only hope is an effigy of the head of a Boer soldier. It’s pretty horrible.

Technically, I do think it’s a brilliantly executed cartoon. If you look at my copy of the Alice in Wonderland illustration above, I think you can tell that the rabbit and horse images were composed by the same artists. I do like the back view of the large soldier in the foreground, almost a silhouette. It’s remarkable to think that ten years earlier, Furniss, Tenniel, Linley Sambourne and Bernard Partridge were all contributing to Punch at the same time. What a talented team.