Many Happy Returns - of the Gold to the Rightful Owners, 1900 UK cartoon: Tom Browne's Sketch cartoon shows Paul Kruger

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.

Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

Name-calling

Date: October 10, 1900
Period: Pre-1914
Made by: The Sketch (London illustrated weekly); cartoonist Tom Browne

Full record

Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights

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
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

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

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.