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!

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.

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.

Monday Boer War Cartoon

Today’s cartoon is another Edward Linley Sambourne cartoon. This one is from late 1900 at a time when Transvaal President Paul Kruger had managed to leave Africa and was trying his best to raise support for the Boer cause from Europe.

The cartoon shows Paul Kruger, smoking a pipe and reading a paper with a glass of wine by his side. The setting seems to be a bar of some kind, and the waitress, glancing at him, seems rather concerned about him being there. The clue to the meaning is the sing at the top of the wall, that reads “Unter Den Linden”. This is a famous street in Berlin which ran from the Kaiser’s palace to the Brandenburg gate. The significance of this is that Kruger had to cool his heels in a bar, reading the paper and smoking his pipe, because Kaiser Wilhelm II refused to meet him. The waitress’ expression is probably indicative of the fact that his presence is a bit of an embarrassment.

Kaiser Wilhelm II was a complicated personality. His arm was injured in the way he was delivered when he was born, and he suffered from feelings of inferiority . He was at times very proud of his English connection – he was the first grandson of Queen Victoria – yet at the same time he could be very suspicious and jealous of Great Britain. After the failure of the Jameson Raid, Wilhelm sent a telegram of congratulations to Paul Kruger, and then was astonished when this was angrily condemned in Britain, and led to him being ostracised by the British Royal Family for some time. This may be why he distanced himself from the Boers.

After the war he would even claim that he had provided Lord Roberts with the plans and strategy to defeat the Boers!

Friday Boer War Cartoon

I confess that I’m running out of Tenniel cartoons about the Boer War to copy, and so this is another Linley Sambourne cartoon, that appeared in Punch on December 13^th 1899.

The title is Disillusioned!. The cartoon is split in two parts by an uneven vertical line. On the left-hand side of the line, which is captioned What they thought Tommy was – it depicts disorganised British soldiers falling around and panicking when an artillery shell bursts overhead. On the right-hand side of the line we see a much larger, more close up British soldier scaling a near vertical cliff face, undaunted by the slumped figure of a comrade to the right.

The message is that, in the view of Linley Sambourne at least, the Boers expected the British army would be easily beaten, especially following what had happened in the first Boer War, but that they soon found out that the British soldiers were a lot tougher and more determined than they expected.

The unintentional irony of the cartoon is that when the cartoon appeared, the British and Empire forces had suffered by far the worst of the fighting thus far, so much so that the same week in which this cartoon was published was nicknamed 'Black Week' after the reverses that they suffered.

Thursday Boer War Cartoon - Edward Linley Sambourne

You know, I’ve been running out of Tenniel cartoons about the Boer War. So I’ve made a copy of a Linley Sambourne cartoon. Who?

Edward Linley Sambourne was born 24 years after Tenniel, in 1844. His original career was as an apprentice engineer, but he was moved into the drawing office when his aptitude was discovered. His work came to the attention of Punch editor Mark Lemon, and he had his first drawing published in the magazine when he was 23 in 1867.Within 4 years he had become a staff member, although he was not to provide his first political cartoon until 1884. Ten years later he began to regularly draw the magazine’s second cartoon. Finally, upon Tenniel’s retirement in 1902 he became the principal cartoonist for Punch.

You have to feel for him a bit. After waiting so long for Tenniel to step down, Linley Sambourne could only enjoy the position as top dog for 8 years, passing away in 1910.

I think it’s fair to suggest that working for the same magazine for which Tenniel had been principal cartoonist for so long must have rubbed off on Linley Sambourne a bit. His personification of Ladysmith in this cartoon, for example, is very similar to the Britannia that Tenniel himself used so often. However, I do feel that there is usually a little less of the caricature about Linley Sambourne’s work than there is with Tenniel. This may be his legacy as an apprentice engineering draughtsman. There’s even a precision about his hatching and shading, compared with Tenniel’s.

I have actually copied one of Linley Sambourne’s drawings before – this one which hailed Tenniel’s knighthood.