OFFICIAL REPORT OF THE EXPEDITION THAT LEFT THE PROTECTORATE AT THE REQUEST OF THE LEADING CITIZENS OF JOHANNESBURG

Sir John Willoughby, Lieutentant-Colonel, Commanding Dr Jameson's Force.

Issued as a court paper for circulation during the London trial of the conspirators (Reform Committee (Transvaal). 14 pages, printed on one side only. Hollams, Sons, Coward & Hawksley, Mincing Lane, E.C. (printed by Waterlow Bros.)

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jameson_Raid) 'The Jameson Raid was a botched raid against the South African Republic (commonly known as the Transvaal) carried out by British colonial administrator Leander Starr Jameson, under the employment of Cecil Rhodes. It involved 500 British South Africa Company police launched from Rhodesia over the New Year weekend of 1895–96. Paul Kruger, for whom Rhodes had great personal hatred, was president of the South African Republic at the time. The raid was intended to trigger an uprising by the primarily British expatriate workers (known as Uitlanders) in the Transvaal but it failed.

'The workers were referred to as The Johannesburg Conspirators. They were expected to recruit an army and prepare for an insurrection; however, the raid was ineffective, and no uprising took place. The results included embarrassment of the British government; the replacement of Cecil Rhodes as prime minister of the Cape Colony; and the strengthening of Boer dominance of the Transvaal and its gold mines. Also, the withdrawal of so many fighting men left Rhodesia vulnerable, one factor that led just a couple of months later to the Second Matabele War. The raid was a contributory cause of the Second Boer War.

'Although Jameson's men had cut the telegraph wires to Cape Town, they had failed to cut the telegraph wires to Pretoria (cutting a fence by mistake). Accordingly, news of his incursion quickly reached Pretoria and Jameson's armed column was tracked by Transvaal forces from the moment that it crossed the border. The Jameson armed column first encountered resistance very early on 1 January when there was a very brief exchange of fire with a Boer outpost. Around noon the Jameson armed column was around twenty miles further on, at Krugersdorp, where a small force of Boer soldiers had blocked the road to Johannesburg and dug in and prepared defensive positions. Jameson's force spent some hours exchanging fire with the Boers, losing several men and many horses in the skirmish. Towards evening the Jameson armed column withdrew and turned south-east attempting to flank the Boer force. The Boers tracked the move overnight and on 2 January, as the light improved, a substantial Boer force with some artillery was waiting for Jameson at Doornkop. The tired raiders initially exchanged fire with the Boers, losing around thirty men before Jameson realized the position was hopeless and surrendered to Commandant Piet Cronjé. The raiders were taken to Pretoria and jailed.'

In a letter to the Editor of Nineteenth Century (a monthly review) written from Pretoria prison after of his arrest Willoughby wrote requesting the editor publish the Report. "It was considered unadvisable for me to publish it pending our trail and the subsequent proceedings of the Select Committee of Inquiry, but now than those two events are things of the past I am most anxious, for the sake of myself an all concerned, to place on record in the most public manner the true story of our expedition, so that the public and posterity may be able to judge between it and the numerous silly misstatements promulgated by individuals who were not actually there, but merely to record the facts as the actually occurred. This report was written in Pretoria Prison within three days of our surrender, and while the events were still fresh in my mind'.