Jameson, Sir Leander Starr

Jameson, Sir Leander Starr, 1853–1917, British colonial administrator and statesman in South Africa. He went to Kimberley (1878) as a physician, became associated with Cecil Rhodes in his colonizing ventures, and was appointed (1891) administrator of Mashonaland. On Dec. 29, 1895, he led a band of volunteers on the famous Jameson Raid into the Boer colony of Transvaal in an effort to support a brewing rebellion by foreign settlers (mainly British), and to further Rhodes's ambition for a united South Africa. The raid was premature. Jameson was captured within a few days and turned over by President Kruger to the British to be punished for his unauthorized venture. He was returned to London for trial and sentenced to imprisonment for 15 months. On his release he returned to South Africa, served in the Cape Colony Parliament (1900–1902), and was premier (1904–8). He played an important role in the South African National Convention (1908–9), which achieved the union of the South African colonies.

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Jameson, Sir Leander Starr

(born Feb. 9, 1853, Edinburgh, Scot.—died Nov. 26, 1917, London, Eng.) British administrator in southern Africa. As Cecil Rhodes's representative, Jameson successfully negotiated mineral concessions in Matabeleland and Mashonaland (present-day Zimbabwe) before becoming the first administrator of the new colony of Rhodesia in 1893. In 1895 Rhodes and Jameson plotted with Uitlander (British) leaders in the Transvaal to overthrow the Boer government of Paul Kruger; the original plan was postponed, but Jameson carried out his own invasion and was quickly captured with all his men. After imprisonment in England, he returned to participate in South African politics.