Many Happy Returns - of the Gold to the Rightful Owners (Tom Browne, The Sketch)
Tom Browne's Sketch cartoon shows Paul Kruger, President of the South African Republic, as a stooped, bearded man in a top hat clutching a bulging money bag, under a birthday greeting that wishes 'many happy returns of the gold to the rightful owners'. The miser caricature is the label, and the caption takes for granted who the 'rightful owners' are.
- Date
- October 10, 1900
- Period
- Pre-1914
- Made by
- The Sketch (London illustrated weekly); cartoonist Tom Browne
- Region
- Western and Central Europe
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Medium
- Cartoon
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Salisbury Government
- Leader
- Robert Gascoyne Cecil
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Themes
- War and the military, Economy and finance, Empire and colonialism
- Event
- Second Boer War
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons, retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published in The Sketch, 10 Oct 1900, before 1931; per Wikimedia Commons)
Tom Browne (1870-1910), The Sketch, vol. XXXI, no. 402, 10 October 1900, p. 491; via Wikimedia Commons
Text on the object
KRUGER. [signature:] TOM BROWNE MANY HAPPY RETURNS - OF THE GOLD TO THE RIGHTFUL OWNERS. FRIEND PAUL IS SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS OF AGE TO-DAY. HE IS THEREFORE OLD ENOUGH TO APPRECIATE THE PIETY OF THIS WISH.
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