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!