30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge *5 Paddling

 

Yes, it's another nostalgic beach picture. Back in my grandparents' time people of a certain age would keep their normal street clothes on the beach, and the furthest they would go was paddling in the sea. Myself, I've always enjoyed a nice paddle. 

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Friday Boer War Cartoon

I will be honest. I cannot think of a more appropriate cartoon with which to bring this series of copies to a conclusion than this Linley Sambourne cartoon published in Punch on 29^th November 1899.

 

We see three British soldiers outside their tents, raising their mugs and toasting Queen Victoria. The caption is “The Queen! God Bless Her!” It’s difficult to figure out exactly what the context of this cartoon might be. Or rather, it’s difficult until you look more closely at the cartoon. Look at the soldier on our left, and in particular, look at what he’s sitting on. It’s a packing crate, and it’s marked with the Queen’s seal flanked by the letters V R and underneath it has the word chocolate. Now it becomes clear. These soldiers are toasting the Queen because she has sent them her gift of Cadbury’s, Fry’s and Rowntree’s tins of chocolate! The very same tins that were the start of my interest in the Ber War back in March.

Now, of course it is possible to criticise the sentiment behind this cartoon. The idea of these simple minded Tommys toasting the Queen for her gift , and being grateful despite the fact that they’re being poorly paid and poorly led and will be treated like dirt if they survive and come home after the war is not, I think, what Linley Sambourne wished to put forward, but there is certainly some truth in it. And I have said all along that for all the faults of the Boers and the Boer Republics – and these were serious – for all of that it was an unjust war. But I don’t blame the ordinary British soldiers for that, nor do I blame them for being people of their time any more than we can be blamed for being people of ours. As Kipling wrote:-

We aren’t no thin red ’eroes, nor we aren’t no black-guards too,

But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;

An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints;

Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints.

While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ ‘Tommy fall be’ind’;

But it’s ‘Please to walk in front, sir,’ when there’s trouble in the wind,

There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, etc.

 

You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all;

We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.

Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face

The Widow’s uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.

For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ ‘Chuck him out, the brute!’

But it’s ‘Saviour of ’is country’ when the guns begin to shoot;

An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ everything you please;

An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!

30x30 Direct Watercolour Challenge *4 Gone Fishin'

 This one does exactly what it says on the tin

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30x30 Diresct Watercolour Challenge 2026 *3 Grandpas on Beach Duty

 I did plan to make several beach themed paintings for this year's challenge. This one shows two grandpa's on beach duty.

I have five of my own grandchildren and being grandpa to them gives me so much pleasure.

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Thursday Boer War Cartoon

This is one of the few British cartoons I’ve found which seems even a little critical of the Boer War. It’s Edward Linley Sambourne again and it appeared in Punch on April 24, 1901.

 

We see Master John Bull, standing in frustration next to what appears to be a very ornate vending machine, presumably like an Edwardian chocolate vending machine. The machine has S. African War on the top, and the word Peace. Young John Bull seems frustrated. The title is PAY! PAY! PAY! and beneath it the caption says “MASTER JOHN BULL”I’VE PUT A LOT OF PENNIES INTO THIS MACHINE AND I HAVEN’T GOT ANYTHING OUT. BUT” (with determination) “I’M GOING ON TILL I DO!” (In consequence of the South African war expenditure Master JOHN BULL has to meet a deficit of fifty five millions.)

This reflects that although Lord Roberts had annexed the two Boer republics the previous year and declared the war won, the Boers had fought on and were still fighting when this cartoon was published. On the one hand it is showing Britain’s determination to fight to a successful conclusion whatever the cost, but on the other hand there’s a clear criticism here. The War is compared to a chocolate machine that does not provide the chocolate that John Bull has paid for. The war, by implication, has not provided what Britain promised itself, despite the huge amount of resources poured into it.

It’s one of my favourite Linley Sambourne cartoons, in fact one of my favourite British cartoons of the Boer War. It can be very hard to find any British cartoon that is at all critical. It can also be very hard to find a Boer War cartoon from any other country that is not.

30x30 Diresct Watercolour Challenge 2026 *2 Swinging 50s London

 

This is the London I was born in, although this looks more like the mid 60s, maybe a couple of years after I was born. I really like the Routemaster bus and the taxi behind the two figures in the foreground. 

Wednesday Boer War Cartoon

The cartoon shows Transvaal President Paul Kruger being greeted by a figure who seems at the very least inspired by Marianne, the allegorical representation of the French Republic. The caption calls her Madame La France. In the background behind the two figures we see a number of shadowed buildings, one of which must be the Eiffel Tower, although one to the left of Paul Kruger has an almost Russian appearance, topped by an onion dome. He has a carpet back and there are a couple of packing crates between them.

Madame La France is apologising to him saying that the French International Exhibition is closed, to which Paul Kruger replies, “Just my luck. So is the Transvaal.” That’s a surprisingly modern and punchy punchline.

The exhibition was the 1900 World’s Fair, which had closed on 12^th November 1900. The second ever Modern Olympic Games was held in Paris as part of this exhibition. Indeed, the organisation was a little bit of a shambles and so it is said, some of the winners ended up never knowing that they had in fact won an Olympics.

The cartoon is, perhaps, just a little misleading. Kruger did not end up winning anything much from the heads of state throughout Europe other than sympathy. Kaiser Wilhelm II even refused to see him in Berlin. But wherever he went in 1900 he was received by huge and enthusiastic crowds and European public opinion was hugely in his favour.

Not that it would do him or his country much good in the long run. He did not return home to the Transvaal after the Treaty of Vereeniging, partly because he felt he could serve his people better where he was and partly because he had no wish to become a British subject again. He was becoming quite infirm, nearly deaf and losing his sight and eventually passed away in Vaud in Switzerland in 1904.