The Nuttall Encyclopedia

1. Jameson, Dr. Leander Starr

   leader of the raid upon Johannesburg, born at Edinburgh; studied medicine in his native city and in London; established himself at Kimberley in 1878, and under the patronage of Mr. Rhodes became the popular administrator for the South Africa Company at Fort Salisbury in 1891; from Mafeking in December of 1896 he started, with a body of 500 troopers, upon his ill-fated incursion into the Transvaal to assist the Uitlanders of Johannesburg; at Krugersdorp the raiders, exhausted by a 24 hours' ride, were repelled by a superior force of Boers, and compelled to surrender; having been handed over to the British authorities, "Dr. Jim," as he was familiarly called, was tried in London, and condemned to 15 months' imprisonment, but was liberated on account of ill-health after about five months' incarceration; b. 1853.