Boer War Page 64

The Picture Press During the Boer War

The public was insatiable for pictures from the front in far-off Africa. In the days before television, war artists became famous for pictures they drew and painted of heroic and terrible acts of war.

Colour printing had suddenly made monumental strides in the late 1890s and now permitted the cheap and mass produced publishing of colour photographs of leading figures, and of battle prints showing heroic actions, not possible in any previous war. Throughout the Empire enthusiastic patriots mounted these prints in ornate frames and proudly hung them in home, office, and public places. The two pages of the Picture Press gives a sampling of original prints, many rescued at out-of-the-way auctions and restored to their former glory, as they were during the days when breathless tales of the Boer War were on every tongue.

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Queen Victoria weeping

You are listening to an original recording featuring one of Canada's very first recording artists, Henry Burr, singing a hymn that was sung with special poignancy for many during the Anglo-Boer War. Henry Burr from New Brunswick, started recording in 1902 while in his teens, and, with some 12,000 recordings to his credit, was the most prolific recording artist of his generation.

Frames like the one on the left, were really four wooden frames set inside one another, and nailed together. Decorative rows of gesso (a chalky plaster) were glued on top of the wood to add glitz and class. Here a strong oak outside frame gives protection to keep the three fragile gesso sections from being bumped. It is hard now, after over 100 years of use and abuse, to find these glorious Victorian frames with undamaged gesso. (Found in Dundas, ON)

Gesso and wood could be decorated and combined in many different ways (right) to create frames that still astonish with their beauty a century after they were made. (Found in Simcoe, ON).

Gesso sections were often coated with gold leaf as are many of the frames in this section Many are damaged beyond repair when antique sellers paint over the leaf with brass or gold paint, ruining the age old patina and dulling the definition of the gesso pattern.

The frame below, is another four-piece frame but this time, completely covered with gesso, that was, in turn, covered with gold leaf. (Found in Port Perry, ON)

(left) This large (16 x 24") picture, entitled "The Last Farewell," was issued as a "Special Supplement" to the Toronto Globe's Christmas issue of 1900.

It shows a Canadian trooper taking his leave of a comrade's grave on the lonely African veldt. We have found framed copies of this picture still in circulation in Victoria, Port Hope, and Cambridge, ON.

To bring the pathos of war into the parlours of Canadians, the Continental Publishing Co. of Toronto, ON, issued the lithograph (right), called "Hit." It shows a trooper of Canada's Second Contingent in the moment that death finds him.

Ironically, the print "Hit" was found in Port Hope, Ontario, the hometown of Pvt. Charlie Evans, (left), a Canadian trooper who died heroically at the Battle of Hart's River, when he kept on fighting even after he was out of ammunition and was shot. Did a relative hang this very print in his memory?

Some 7,000 Canadians served in the South African War. Some 300 never returned and lie today in lonely African graves.

(below) One can clearly make out all four sections that have been nailed together to create a work of art cherished by many generations of the same family.

(below) A modest one-piece oak frame affordable for farmers and workers, holds another Canadian lithograph, entitled "Home from the War, An Incident of the South African War."

An elderly mother, reading old letters, and grieving about bad news from Africa, wonders whether she'll ever again, see her dear boy, gone to the wars.

Her younger son, having opened the door, can hardly hold back his excitement! There, resplendent in khaki, and wearing the Canadian maple leaf cap badge bearing the word CANADA, is older brother, about to give his mother the surprise of her life. (Found in Sudbury, ON)

(below) To celebrate the happy occasion, the Toronto Globe issued a Christmas supplement in 1900, entitled "Welcome Home." This modest one-piece oak frame could be afforded by every family. (Found in St. George, ON)

But the war would go on for another year and a half. And most of the dying, for the Canadians too, was yet to come.

On "Bloody Sunday," during the Battle of Paardeberg, Feb. 18, 1900,

This large, 17 x 22" lithograph (above) was printed by John Dougall and Son of Montreal, Canada, to commemorate the occasion. (Found in Ottawa, ON)

(left) This massive and glorious 32 x 36" frame spent the past 114 years holding Victoria's portrait in a wealthy home near Toronto. (Found in Caledon, ON)

(above) A cheap, institutional, and minimal oak frame, says that this picture of Queen Victoria hung in an office, pool room, or hotel, to remind everyone, of their membership in a great and glorious British Empire.

When the Boer War started, her stern gaze reminded all who passed of their duty to the Mother Country, now that the Empire was challenged in South Africa.

In 1897 Victoria celebrated her Diamond Jubilee, and the Empire went wild with joy. A new lithograph was struck.

The huge 20 x 27" lithograph, in a glorious 30 x 36" frame (left) would have belonged to a family of note. This print was so widespread that today it remains the most common Victorian lithograph to be found, though most are damaged and have been heavily trimmed to fit smaller frames. This immaculate, full size print was found in Paris, ON.

Another popular portrait subject was Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the "Premier of Canada," as the picture notes (left). He had been elected for the first time in 1896, and had been knighted when he attended the Jubilee celebrations in London the following year.

Just two years later, the Boer War broke out, and Laurier become the first Canadian Prime Minister to send a Canadian military unit to fight in an overseas war.

A large and ornate frame like this (27 x 33") meant this huge portrait probably hung in a private home. This large and stunning coloured lithograph was found in Canfield, ON.

In the back, fifth from the right, sits Israel Tarte (below) who vehemently opposed Canadian participation in the Boer War, shouting, "99% of French Canadians detest this war."

But he was a lonely voice in a cabinet that pushed Laurier (below left), towards war.

The strongest voice pushing for war was Minister of Militia Frederick Borden (above far right, and right), who was eager to test the Canadian militia under battlefield conditions. But he was to pay a terrible personal price for his pro-war enthusiasm. His only son Harold, a medical student at McGill University (left), signed up against his father's advice, served gallantly before being killed in action.