JAMESON, LEANDER STARR ( 1853—). A Scottish physician and soldier, who became prom inent as leader of the raid into the Transvaal in December, 1895. A sodof R. W. Jameson, Writer to the Signet, he was born in Edinburgh. He studied medicine at London graduated :M.D., B.S., M.R.C.S., in 1875, M.D. 1877, and went to Kimberley, Cape Colony, to practice his profession. Association with Cecil Rhodes led to his appointment as Administrator of Rhodesia in 1891, under the British South Africa Com pany. In that capacity he organized an expe dition against the Matahele in. 1893. In 1894 he was created a C.B. In the course of the discon tent and political agitation among the Uitlander element in the Transvaal Republic, a body at troops commanded by Dr. Jameson was placed by Rhodes's orders on the borders of the Trans vaal, prepared to act in ease of disturbances. On receipt of a letter from Johannesburg, the seat of disaffection, Jameson, acting on his own judgment, invaded the Transvaal, with 600 men, on December 29, 1895. On January 1st, meeting
with resistance at Krugersdorp. he shelled the town, hut was unable to carry the position. The next day he moved toward Doornkoop, where, after thirty-six hours of almost continuous fight ing, and the loss of 17 killed and 49 wounded, he was forced to surrender to the Boers. The raid was condemned throughout the civilized world. President Kruger handed Jameson and his officers over to the British Government for punishment. They were taken to England, and tried in London. In May, I496, Jameson was sentenced to ten months' imprisonment for an infringement of the Foreign Enlistment Act, but, owing to ill health, was released in December. He returned to Rhodesia in 1897. and unofficially assisted in the development of its resources. He served in the war against the Boer republics.