Leander Starr Jameson
Sir Leander Starr Jameson, Bt also known as "Doctor Jim" (February 9, 1853 - November 26, 1917), was a British colonial statesman, best known for his involvement in the Jameson Raid.He was born in Edinburgh, the son of R. W. Jameson, a writer to the signet, and was educated for the medical profession at University College Hospital, London (M.R.C.S. 1875; M.D. 1877). After acting as house physician, house surgeon and demonstrator of anatomy, and showing promise of a successful professional career in London, his health broke down from overwork in 1878, and he went out to South Africa and settled down in practice at Kimberley. There he rapidly acquired a great reputation as a medical man, and, besides numbering President Kruger and the Matabele chief Lobengula among his patients, came much into contact with Cecil Rhodes. In 1888 his influence with Lobengula was successfully exerted to induce that chieftain to grant the concessions to the agents of Rhodes which led to the formation of the British South Africa Company; and when the company proceeded to open up Mashonaland, Jameson abandoned his medical practice and joined the pioneer expedition of 1890. From this time his fortunes were bound up with Rhodes' schemes in the north. Immediately after the pioneer column had occupied Mashonaland, Jameson, with F. C. Selous and A. R. Colquhoun, went east to Manicaland and was instrumental in securing the greater part of that country, to which Portugal was laying claim, for the Chartered Company. In 1891 Jameson succeeded Colquhoun as administrator of Rhodesia.
In 1895 Jameson assembled a private army outside the Transvaal in preparation for the violent overthrow of the Boer government. The idea was to forment unrest among foreign workers (Uitlanders) in the territory, and use the outbreak of open revolt as an excuse to invade and annex the territory. Growing impatient, Jameson launched the Jameson Raid in October of 1895, and managed to push within twenty miles of Johannesburg before superior Boer forces compelled him and his men to surrender. Jameson was tried in England for leading the raid; during which time he was lionized by the press and London society. He was sentenced to fifteen months in jail, but soon pardoned. He was Prime Minister of the Cape Colony from 1904 to 1908. He was created a baronet in 1911 and returned to England in 1912.
- This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Please update as needed.