The If Man

Book excerpt: "The famous poem by Rudyard Kipling is based on the life of Jameson, and the suffering he endured as a result of the doomed raid that he and his Rhodesian and Bechuanaland policemen carried out against Paul Kruger's Transvaal Republic in 1896. In this engaging biography ... Ash recounts the life of this colonial statesman known as 'Dr Jim' or simply 'The Doctor'. He was an enigmatic man: when he died The Times estimated that his astonishing personal sway over his followers was equalled only by that of Parnell, the Irish patriot. During the fervour of the South African diamond rush Jameson established a small medical practice in Kimberley in 1878; it was here that he met and forged a lifelong friendship with Cecil John Rhodes. Jameson's thirst for adventure, coupled with Rhodes's dream of expanding the British Empire from the Cape to Cairo, led - under Royal Charter to the British South Africa Company - to the occupation of Mashonaland in 1890, with Jameson having laid the groundwork in his political dealings with Lobengula, king of the Matabele. And so began Jameson's rollercoaster adventure: from Administrator of Mashonaland, to the 'invasion' of Portuguese East Africa (Mozambique), the Matabele War and the infamous 'Jameson Raid' and his subsequent trial and incarceration in London. Despite the raid, Jameson had a successful political life. He died on 26 November 1917 in London. His body was laid in a vault at Kensal Green cemetery where it remained until the end of the First World War. Ian Colvin wrote in 1923 that Jameson's body was then 'carried to Rhodesia and on the 22nd of May, 1920, laid in a grave cut in the granite on the top of the mountain which Rhodes had called 'The View of the World' (in the Matopos Hills near Bulawayo), close beside the grave of his friend.'"--Back cover.