Monday Boer War Cartoon

I’ve backtracked a little for today’s cartoon. This is called THE BOER AT BAY and it appeared in July 1889, a couple of months before ethe outbreak of the war.

So we have a rather strangely dressed hunter, with a spear and a pack of dogs, having cornered a wild boar. It’s a visual pin, the cornered boar representing the Boers who were being forced into an impossible position by the British government, using the pretext of the cause of the Uitlanders as the pretext. If we look a little closer we can identify the main figures. The hunter’s hounds helpfully have Uitlanders written on their backs. The uitlanders were the people who had come to settle in the Transvaal, the majority being brought by the gold rush. They believed that the taxes charged them by the government were exorbitant especially considering that they were ineligible to vote until they had lived in the Transvaal for 14 years.

The wild boar has the white beard that was one of the most characteristic features of the appearance of the Transvaal president Paul Kruger. As for the hunter, well, the monocle certainly suggests that this is Joseph Chamberlain. Chamberlain, the father of Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, was a very interesting man and an important political figure. He was a Birmingham businessman and his background was strikingly different from other top politicians of the day. Originally a Liberal MP, he split with the Liberals over his opposition to Gladstone’s goal of Home Rule for Ireland, creating the Liberal Unionists. They allied with the Conservative party ( to this day their official name is the Conservative and Unionist Party) and following the 1895 General Election he became Secretary of State for the Colonies, and it was from this position of power that he really helped push the Transvaal into the position where war became inevitable.

Chamberlain had been suspected of complicity with Cecil Rhodes in the planning of the Jameson Raid – how much he knew or was involved though remains a matter of speculation.

Sketchbook Challenge - Sketchbook filled

Well, I’ve finally filled my 8^th sketchbook of my sketchbook challenge, and there’s two months to go. I will be honest, having concentrated on copying political cartoons from the turn of the 20^th century meant that even when I took up my pens again having taken a break in the second half of April it has taken a long time, because it takes so long to copy a cartoon properly.

So what’s the verdict on this Nassau A5 sketchbook?

Well, it’s certainly from the cheaper end of the market. If you shop around you can get this sketchbook for less than £6. For that you get 62 sheets/124 pages of ivory coloured 130gsm paper. It’s 13x21cm, and looks very similar to a Moleskine sketchbook, although the corners aren’t at all rounded and there’s no document pocket attached to the inside back cover.

I primarily use fineliners and this isn’t that great for them. The lines you get aren’t as crisp as you get in books like the Seawhite, Leuchtturm or Moleskine. At 130 gsm it really should be able to cope with ordinary black fineliner, but on many drawings I got telltale dots showing through on the other side of the page. The paper buckles with watercolour but then I expected that anyway.

You can buy the book separately, but I received mine as part of a 12 piece urban sketching set I was gifted for Christmas 2024. And I don’t want to be too harsh about it, because the set also has fineliner pens , pencils, rubber and eraser, al for less than £12. Which maybe makes it a decent place to start if you’re thinking about giving urban sketching a try and want to get all the basics in one go. But I don’t plan on buying a Nassau sketchbook again any time soon myself.

Sunday Boer War Cartoon

Today’s Tenniel Boer War cartoon is another one depicting Transvaal president Paul Kruger. It was published in June 1900.

 

Its title is SHIFTING HIS CAPITAL. The caption reads :-

President Kruger had abandoned Pretoria on the near approach of the British Forces, taking with him, it was reported, bullion to the value of £2,000,000, which, he said, was simply required for State purposes.

When I read the caption I picture Tenniel rubbing his chin as he wrote it. The ‘he said’ might just as well have been followed by “but I don’t believe him’. By the end of May 1900 British Empire forces were nearing Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal.  They had captured Bloemfontein, the capital city of Orange Free State in March. Paul Kruger left on the 31^st March and the government on June 2^nd, a couple of days before Lord Roberts’ forces entered the city.

By September, Lord Roberts announced that the Transvaal was now annexed to the British Empire, and that the war was over. Yet it wasn’t. The Boers would continue to wage guerilla warfare until the war formally ended on 31^st May 1902.

Kruger did continue the business of the Boer Government despite the scepticism of the cartoon. Only until September, though, when his government voted for him to avoid capture by moving first to Laurenco Marques in Portuguese Mozambique and thence to Europe. He would never return to Pretoria, indeed he never returned to Africa at all. He did in July 1904 in Switzerland, but in December British authorities gave permission for his body to be buried in Pretoria in the Church Street Cemetery.

Saturday Boer War Cartoon

This next cartoon looks forward to possibly the most famous action of the 2^nd Boer War, namely the relief of Mafeking, the raising of the siege of the city. The cartoon was published on 9^th May 1900.

 

The title is THE ELEVENTH HOUR

The caption is

COLONEL BADEN POWELL (TO MAFEKING) “ALL RIGHT! CHEER UP! ‘BOBS’ IS A MAN OF HIS WORD!”

In the cartoon we see the leader of the British defenders of Mafeking, Robert Baden-Powell, yes, the same Baden-Powell who would create the Scouting movement after the war, consoling a thing, downcast lady, the allegorical personification of the city of Mafeking. They are in a ruined townscape, and Baden Powell is pointing to a notice on the war, with Lord Roberts’ promise to relieve the city by the 18^th May.

As it was, the relief came two days earlier, on the 16^th May and this was the trigger for wild celebrations as soon as the news reached Britain. So huge were the celebrations that for a while a word derived from the name of the city – ‘mafficking’ – became a slang verb for making merry.

Mafeking itself was a town in the British Cape Colony where Colonel Baden-Powell chose to keep stores for his cavalry corps. Immediately prior to the outbreak of the war he built up the defences of the town. In the end, the siege of Mafeking lasted longer than either of the other two Boer sieges of the war, those of Ladysmith and Kimberley, 217 days in total.

Baden-Powell became a public hero due to his leadership during the siege, being promoted to Major-General and made a Companion of the Order of the Bath. In more recent times his role had had just a little bit of a reappraisal, in particular the fact that he only made one attempt to break out from Mafeking despite the fact that at times the siege was not committing large numbers of Boer soldiers.

Baden-Powell later said that it was organising civilians and children that would later help him form plans for the boy scout organisation, his lasting legacy.

Friday Boer War Cartoon

This cartoon was published in March 1900. The title is Full of Resource. 

The caption is:-

PRESIDENT KRUGER (reading the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s speech on the Budget debate):-

“I am not going to bind myself as to what I will do on the termination of the War. I look first to the Transvaal.”

“Oh, DOES he? I know what I’M going to do on the termination of the war. I’M going through the BANKRUPTCY COURT!”

Paul Kruger was the president of the Transvaal Republic. His appearance made him something of a gift to cartoonists like John Tenniel. He wore a moustacheless, Amish style beard, and usually dressed in a plain black coat and top hat, a style of dress adopted by members of the Doppers, the religious sect to which he belonged. He’s a very interesting character. Kruger’s ancestors emigrated from Germany to the Cape Colony. When he was a child, he and his family took part in the Great Trek. This was the migration of Dutch speaking settlers who did not want to live under British colonial administration. When he had grown up, Kruger would serve the Transvaal republic as a soldier and then a statesman. He was a gifted orator, despite the fact that he (claimed he) had only ever read one book, the Bible. His nickname, certainly amongst the Boers, was Oom Paul – or – Uncle Paul.

I’m not totally sure that I completely understand the cartoon. By the time it was published in March 1900 the ineffective and unsuccessful Sir Redvers Buller had been replaced as British Commander in Chief by Lord Roberts, and the sieges of Kimberly and Ladysmith had been raised. British public opinion was mistakenly starting to feel that the war was all over bar the shouting. The Chancellor of the Exchequer had made this statement which seemed to be saying that the Boer Republics would be expected to pay reparations after the end of the war, without actually making a hard and fast commitment to the policy. Kruger’s response in the caption seems to be saying – well, there will be no chance of that happening since there will be no wealth left here to take. I’m unsure, though, on exactly what Tenniel is saying. The expression on Kruger’s face seems to suggest he isn’t unhappy about this. Likewise, it seems to be more of a criticism of the Government’s attitude, suggesting that the idea of forcing the Boers to pay for the cost of the war is pie in the sky. As indeed it turned out to be.

The 2^nd Boer War was the most expensive war Britain had ever fought and remained so until the First World War. Far from imposing war reparations, the Treaty of Vereeniging which officially ended the war saw the British government commit to paying £3 million for reconstruction in the two former republics and for repatriation of the Boers.

Thursday Boer War Cartoon

In March 1900, Sir John Tenniel published this cartoon in Punch. He has a different target in this cartoon.

 

The cartoon has the title “Who said “Dead”?”. The cartoon shows a donkey running away for its life from a roaring lion emerging from a cave. The donkey has ‘Continental Press’ written on its back. By March 1900 the sieges of Kimberley and Ladysmith had been relieved and the British and Empire army under the new commander in chief, Lord Roberts, had begun to win some successes. The message of the cartoon seems pretty much to be that the British and Empire forces have now roused themselves to their warlike best, and proven to the world – well, to Europe at least – that the reports of the death of the Empire have been greatly exaggerated.

Portraying the European media as a donkey shows a certain contempt for them – they are donkeys, or asses, fools in other words. The European reactions to the circumstances of the Boer War were pretty much universally condemning of the British actions in provoking the war, and British Imperialism. There was just a little whiff of hypocrisy about this considering that some of the countries that were the strongest critics had also been willing and enthusiastic participants in the so-called ‘Scramble for Africa’ themselves.

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.