The People of the Boer War

Chamberlain

Joseph Chamberlain (1836-1914) became Colonial Secretary in Prime Minister Salisbury's government in 1895. He could have been placed in a more senior role however, wanted this job as he would be in control of Britain's colonies. He wanted to forge a closer union between the colonies and Britain, bring together the diverse collection of territories to create an Empire. Chamberlain was pro Boer. But not everybody shared his enthusiasm for the Boer War and subsequently he became the target of the anti-war movements anger. His rivalry with David Lloyd George was legendary. Chamberlains party represented the Conservative Party and imperialism. In 1900 Chamberlains party would storm home under the banner of social imperialism and the coming victory in the Boer War.

Lloyd George

David Lloyd George (1863-1945) was Prime Minister from 1916 to 1922 and becaradicalism and earned notoriety for his opposition to the Boer War. Lloyd George had a huge rivalry with Chamberlain. But in 1906 there was a change as Lloyd George had his hands on the levers of power in Britain and Chamberlains legacy was consigned to the dustbin of history. Lloyd George stressed that the British Empire needed to be based on freedom, but he wasn't an opponent of the British Empire.
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Milner

Alfred Milner (1854-1925) was selected by Chamberlain to become the most important diplomat in South Africa - the High Commissioner. Although Milner didn't have the power to declare war, his political union with Chamberlain unquestionably made it happen. They both had the same views on the Boer Republics. Milner saw the British as a superior race compared to the Boers. In his opinion the British aristocracy ruled the world and his views allowed the thinking for ethnic cleansing and concentration camps, which came around in a couple of years.

Kitchener

Lord Herbert Kitchener (1850-1916) was a senior British Army Officer and colonial administrator who won fame for his imperial campaigns and later played a central role in the First World War. He felt that the press needed to be controlled and introduced greater censorship during the guerrilla phase of the war in 1900-1901.

Roberts

Frederick Roberts (1832-1914) was a British soldier who was one of the most successful commanders of the 19th Century. He realised the value of  the press in maintaining morale and in generating a positive public image. He tries to get press support by supplying war correspondents with information and allowing them to use army telegraph systems to relay dispatches to London.

Hobhouse

Emily Hobhouse (1860-1926) was a British welfare campaigner. Much like Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole during the Crimean War, Emily Hobhouse traveled overseas to explore the cruelties of war. In 1901, she visited the concentration camps of Bloemfontein and was shocked by the suffering of the Boer women and children in the camps. She famously took the photograph of the young Boer girl Lizzie Van Zyl who was starving to death. She increased the pressure on leading politicians to come out against the war. And around the country a growing anti-war movement was repulsed by the photograph of what the camps had done to Van Zyl. Hobhouse's photography also continued the tradition of photography bringing people at home closer to the reality of war.

Hobson

John Hobson (1858-1940) was an English economist and critic of imperialism. Hobson was a Marxist writer. He wrote regularly in the anti-war newspaper, The Manchester Guardian. The newspaper, edited by C.P.Scott. gave regular column space to Marxist writers like Hobson to argue fiercely against the war before, during and after it. In The Guardian, Hobson even exposed the fact that Chinese slaves were being used in the gold mines to increase profits further for the fat cats of the Empire. The Marxist political party of the day, the Labour Party was just starting to grow in strength and size, organizing itself through trade unions - ready for a political fight against the aristocracy. Marxists like Hobson would be at the front of the fight, questioning how on earth British working class soldiers were dying for gold profits that go to the aristocrats in South Africa.

Campbell-Bannerman

Henry Campbell-Bannerman (1838-1908) was the leader of the Liberal Party during the Boer War. He wanted to become the next Prime Minister replacing Robert Salisbury of the Conservative Party. But in a time of war that would be incredibly hard because the country was largely supportive of the war and the Empire and the Conservative Party best represented such views. The Liberal Party was less supportive of imperialism and the Boer War, but even if he was strongly against the war, Campbell-Bannerman couldn't come out and say so because in a highly jingoistic country like Britain, it would be equal to political suicide. It took Hobhouse exposing the conditions in the concentration camps to make him finally speak out against the war. He moved the Liberal Party to an anti-war position in the following years but unlike Lloyd George, could never say he fully opposed the war from start until end.