Leander Starr Jameson

Sir Leander Starr Jameson, Bt (February 9, 1853 – November 26, 1917), also known as "Doctor Jim", was a British colonial statesman who was best known for his involvement in the Jameson Raid.

He was born on 9th February, 1853, very early in the morning, of the Jameson family of Edinburgh, the son of R. W. Jameson, a writer to the signet, and Christian Pringle, daughter of General Pringle of Symington. Robert William and Christian Jameson had twelve children, of whom Leander Starr was the youngest, born at Stranraer on the West Coast of Scotland, great-grand nephew of Professor Robert Jameson, Regius Professor of Natural History at the University of Edinburgh.

Leander Starr's somewhat unusual name resulted from the fact that his father Robert William Jameson had been rescued from drowning on the morning of his birth by an American traveller, who fished him out of a canal or river with steep banks into which William had fallen while on a walk awaiting the birth of his son. The kindly stranger named "Leander Starr" was promptly made a godfather of the baby, who was named after him. His father, Robert William, started his career as an advocate in Edinburgh, and was Writer to the Signet, before becoming a playwright, published poet and editor of the Wigtownshire Free Press.

A radical and reformist, Robert William was the author of Timoleon, a tragedy in five acts, which was performed at the Adelphi Theatre in Edinburgh in 1852, and ran to a second edition. In due course, the Jameson family moved to London, living in Chelsea and Kensington. Leander went to the Godolphin School in Hammersmith, where he did well in both lessons and games prior to his university education.

Leander Starr was educated for the medical profession at University College Hospital, London, for which he passed his entrance examinations in January, 1870. He distinguished himself as a medical student, becoming a Gold Medallist in Materia Medica. After qualifying as a doctor, Leander Starr was made Resident Medical Officer at University College Hospital (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 he successfully exerted his influence with Lobengula 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 foment 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 that 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.

According to Rudyard Kipling, his famous poem "If—" was written in celebration of Leander Starr Jameson's personal qualities at overcoming the difficulties of the Raid, for which he largely took the blame, though Joseph Chamberlain, British colonial secretary of the day, was, according to some historians, implicated in the events of the raid. Jameson is buried at Malindidzimu Hill or World's View, a granite hill in southwestern Zimbabwe 25 miles (40 km) south of Bulawayo. It was designated by Cecil Rhodes as the resting place for those who served Great Britain well in Africa. Rhodes is also buried there.

Leander Starr's life is the subject of a number of biographies, including The Life of Jameson by Ian Colvin (1922). There are three portraits of him in the National Portrait Gallery in London. One of these was by one of Leander's older brothers, Middleton Jameson, RA, (1851–1919), otherwise known as 'Midge', to whom he was devoted.fr:Leander Starr Jameson