Wednesday Boer War Cartoon

I haven’t found any Tenniel cartoons referring to the so-called ‘Black Week’ of 10-17^th December 1899, when British forces suffered three major defeats to Boer forces. Following a further defeat in January in the Battle of Spion Kop (if you ever wondered why part of Liverpool’s Anfield stadium – and some other grounds – have the name the Kop, they were named after this battle) Redvers Buller was replaced as Commander in Chief by Lord Roberts. In March 1900, this cartoon was published in Punch.

With the situation seemingly changed, Tenniel reverted to the figure of John Bull to represent the British (English) nation. The heading is “Never Say Die!” and the long caption underneath reads,

“JOHN BULL (to himself in the “Mark Tapley” vein). – “NOW, MR. JOHN BULL, JUST YOU ATTEND TO WHAT I’VE GOT TO SAY. THINGS HAVE BEEN LOOKING ABOUT AS BAD AS THEY COULD LOOK, OLD MAN. YOU’LL NOT HAVE SUCH ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY FOR SHOWING YOUR JOLLY DISPOSITION, MY FINE FELLOW, AS LONG AS YOU LIVE. AND THEREFORE, JOHN B., NOW’S YOUR TIME TO COME OUT STRONG; NOW OR NEVER!” And J.B. has come out strong at Kimberley and after.)-Martin Chuzzlewit, ch. xxiii.

Mark Tapley, as the captions suggests, is a character in Dickens’ novel Martin Chuzzlewit whose speciality is deliberately looking on the bright side and staying cheerful in the most awful of situations. The cartoon, without actually saying that things have been going very badly for the British and Empire army, pretty much concedes this. Even the notice behind John Bull, while trumpeting Lord Roberts’ advance and the relief of Kimberley still admits that there have been unexpectedly heavy casualty lists. With the rather smug look on John Bull’s face, you get the idea that the feeling the cartoon is trying to convey is a message of nothing to worry about folks, normal service has been resumed. Which would turn out to be misplaced confidence.

Although the coming months would see the relief of Mafeking and the occupation of the two Boer capitals, Pretoria and Bloemfontein, the war was actually a long way from being over. Indeed, Lord Roberts announced that the war was over on 3^rd September 1900 and formally annexed the South African Republic. But actually the Boers would continue to fight, only changing their tactics to wage a pretty successful guerilla campaign against supply and communication lines.