Jameson Raid

Even in the age of imperial chicanery, the audacity of the Jameson Raid was astounding. Imagine, two sizeable groups of well-armed mounted men, departing from Pitsane in present-day Botswana and Mafeking (now Mahikeng), respectively, at sunset on 29 December 1895, for a three-day canter to Johannesburg to overthrow Kruger’s government and proclaim it a colony of the British Empire.

Perhaps the closest modern counterpart is the so-called ‘Wonga Coup’ of 2004, to replace the President of Equatorial Guinea with an exiled opposition leader in return for preferential oil rights to corporations affiliated with those involved in the coup.

Ever since that death-or-glory ride, the fate of several of those men of the Mashonaland Mounted and the Bechuanaland Border Police units, who comprised the Jameson Raiders, have been lost in the fog of history and war. This article investigates where those bold policemen who were killed in clashes with the Boer burghers were buried.

By the mid 1890’s it was obvious that in the area immediately south of Johannesburg the world’s richest and greatest gold reefs ever, have been discovered. To the chagrin of Cecil John Rhodes, it also became clear that the extensive gold reefs he and other investors had hoped to find north of the Limpopo River, did not exist.

To Rhodes and other like-minded Randlords, it was intolerable that an ignorant and corrupt Boer government should rule the country where all this immense underground wealth existed. Gradually plans were laid  to seize, if not the whole of the...

In the article below, journalist Lucille Davie unpacks the captivating story of the Jameson Raid, a major event in the history of Johannesburg and South Africa. The piece was first published on the City of Johannesburg's website on 27 October 2011. Click here to view more of Davie's work.

“Johannesburg is ready . . . [this is] the big idea which makes England dominant in Africa, in fact gives England the African continent,” wrote Cecil John Rhodes to Alfred Beit in August 1895.
 
The letter, quoted by Thomas Pakenham in The Boer War, refers to the Jameson Raid of 1895/6, an abortive mission in which the foreigners or Uitlanders in Johannesburg encouraged Scotsman Dr Leander Starr Jameson and his troop of some 400 soldiers to ride into the town and force Paul Kruger, president of the Zuid Afrikaanse Republiek, to accede to their demands. And in the process, the British imperialist programme would bag the gold fields of South Africa, at the time the third largest source of gold in the world.

But it ended at Krugersdorp, some 20km west of Joburg, with a dishevelled bunch of men being sent to jail. “The raiders looked a sorry crowd,” wrote TV Bulpin in Lost Trails of the Transvaal. “Dirty, miserable, many of them wounded, some weeping, and Jameson trembling like a leaf in the wind.”

Dr...

A Peep Into My Life, The Memoir of William Eastwood was reproduced in 2016, 82 years after it was initially published. This was done at the request of Eastwood's granddaughter Mary Drabbe, who is now proudly distributing his original work. Photographs and some relevant research has been added by compiler and editor Jennifer Els.

Mary reveals how her grandmother was so tired of hearing all the stories of her husband’s life that she persuaded him to write them all down. The reproduction of this memoir brings a fascinating story to a new audience. It was written by a man who came to Johannesburg in 1887, at the age of twenty-five, having been born in Bradford in the United Kingdom.

In the first section of the book, Eastwood records events of his childhood in Britain, the difficulties of finding employment and then of his adventures over a two-year period, when he travelled to and explored places like Australia, New Zealand, Tasmania, the Fiji Islands and New York.

Eastwood's recollections of a three-month sea voyage in 1883 provide a vivid account of the conditions and dangers of travel on a sailing ship at that time. He returned to England after his adventures but on his father's urging soon set out for South Africa like so many others at that time.

He initially arrived in Potchefstroom where he stayed with his brother Phil who was working there. Both then and at a later stage, when he was employed to operate a three-stamp-battery, readers get a glimpe of...

The fateful year of 1896 is one of the most momentous years in the history of South Africa, the reason being the coming together of events which provided the “Perfect Storm”.

The year started badly with the Jameson Raid, a blunder of epic proportions which polarised the attitudes of both Boer and Briton. However there was worse to come in the form of drought and pestilence, which would have an effect on all the people living in South Africa.

Boers during the Jameson Raid

South Africa at the time was not defined by its present borders, but was a region which stretched from Cape Town to the Zambesi which was considered to be in the British sphere of influence, as defined by the Berlin Conference of 1884.  The British Empire was still in an expansionist phase and wished to consolidate its control over the region. This was all well and good but for the fact that the region was already settled by others, namely the African tribes and Boers (white farmers of Dutch descent).

Cecil John Rhodes came to prominence in the political affairs of the Cape Colony, when he became its Prime Minister in 1890, a position he would hold until early 1896, when he was forced to resign over his involvement in the Jameson...

In 1996, a group from the Johannesburg Historical Foundation visited multiple sites associated with the Jameson Raid to mark the centenary of the historic event. Following the visit, Rob Milne put together this wonderful piece which appeared in the 1997 edition of the Foundation's journal Between the Chains.

On Tuesday 2 January 1996, the centenary of the Jameson Raid, two small parties visited the surrender site at Doornkop. Hamish Gilfillan, whose great-grandfather was a member of the Reform Committee was there at the approximate time of the surrender. My party arrived around lunchtime, having traced the footsteps and burial places of the raiders and their adversaries. Barely thirty people commemorated an event which led to the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902, and which was a contributing factor to the Great War of 1914-1918 that cost millions of lives.

Battle Sites

After 100 years, what remains to be seen that relates to the Jameson Raid? If you drive westwards out of Krugersdorp on the Rustenburg Road (R24), you will see the old Queens Mine dumps between Robert Broom Drive and the entrance to the Krugersdorp Game Reserve. The dark red eroded mine dumps overlook the rocks and rubble from the now-levelled mine buildings. There is a small mine shaft still in operation on the crest of the Queens Mine ridge. The stream and vlei at the bottom of the valley is now crossed by a bridge instead of a drift and, looking back, you realise what a strong defensive position the Boers occupied. Proceeding westward...