Leander Starr Jameson - Later Political Career

Later Political Career

Despite the Raid, Jameson had a successful political life following the invasion, receiving many honours in later life. In 1903 Jameson was put forward as the leader of the Progressive (British) Party in the Cape Colony. When the party was successful he briefly became Prime Minister of the Cape Colony, from 1904 to 1908. His government was unique in Cape history, as being the only Ministry to be comprised exclusively of English politicians. During the Conference of Colonial Premiers held in London in March 1907, he was made a Privy Counsellor. He served as the leader of the Unionist Party (South Africa) from its founding in 1910 until 1912. Jameson 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 the Matobo National Park, 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.

Sir Leander Starr Jameson, 1st Bt., died on the afternoon of Monday, 26 November 1917, at his home, 2 Great Cumberland Place, Hyde Park, in London. His body was laid in a vault at Kensal Green Cemetery on 29 November 1917, where it remained until the end of the First World War.

Ian Colvin (1923) writes that Jameson's body was then:

"...carried to Rhodesia and on 22 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, close beside the grave of his friend.

'Thy firmness makes my circle just, And makes me end where I begun.'

There on the summit those two lie together."