Britain urged to follow NZ example in case of executed Boer War pair

Edward Woodward as Harry Morant in the 1980 film Breaker Morant. Photo / Supplied

CANBERRA - Britain has been asked to follow New Zealand's act of contrition towards five of its soldiers executed in World War I and pardon Harry "Breaker" Morant, the brawling, hard-drinking soldier and horse-thief shot with another Australian for killing prisoners during the Boer War.

Morant and Peter Handcock admitted the murders but claimed they were acting on the orders of Lord Kitchener, one of Britain's most distinguished soldiers who led the Imperial forces against Dutch farmers in South Africa at the turn of the 20th century.

Morant has become an Australian folk hero despite his British birth and his admission of guilt, especially after the 1980 movie Breaker Morant portrayed him and Handcock as scapegoats to imperial honour, executed while British officers also involved in the murder of prisoners were set free.

Opinions remain divided, but a military legal expert and former police prosecutor, James Unkles, has convinced the Australian Government to forward a petition to Britain's Secretary of State for Defence asking for pardons on 10 points of law.

Making his case, Unkles has pointed to the pardoning of the New Zealander soldiers - two originally from Australia - executed by the British for desertion and mutiny during World War I, recognising "exceptional circumstances" and ignorance of the significance of traumatic stress known as shellshock, but without seeking to overturn the original verdicts.

"Notwithstanding the differences between the New Zealand pardons and the cases of Morant, Handcock and [also-convicted Australian George] Witton, the fact remains that a compelling case for review can be justified in the interest of fairness and restoring honour to men who served their country and the British Crown," Unkles says in his argument.

The petition was forwarded to London by Attorney-General Robert McClelland, without expressing an opinion on its merits.

Morant was the stuff of legend.

In January 1900 he sailed for South Africa as a lance corporal with the South Australian Mounted Rifles, returning to England after his tour ended and marrying the sister of his best friend Captain Frederick Hunt before returning to join the newly-formed Bushveldt Carbineers in April, 1901.

The Carbineers, made up mainly of Australians, New Zealanders, Britons and South Africans, was one of the irregular units raised by Kitchener to counter the guerrilla tactics adopted by the Boers after their early conventional forces had been defeated by the much larger imperial army.

Now a lieutenant, Morant commanded a squadron that helped capture the key railhead of Peitersburg, near Pretoria.

But in the continuing hit-and-run war concern grew at the shooting of unarmed prisoners, condemned in a letter signed by 15 fellow Carbineers.

In October 1901 Morant, Handcock, Witton, two other Australians and two British officers were arrested and charged with a total of six crimes.

Before Morant arrived at Fort Edward, where the killings took place, British captain Alfred Taylor had already shot six Boers.

Later, Handcock had taken a South African Carbineer on patrol after the trooper had told local Boers of the Taylor killings, and returned alone. He claimed the soldier had been shot in an ambush.

Morant's killings began after his wounded friend Hunt had been killed and mutilated by a group of Boers. He first shot a prisoner named Visser allegedly caught wearing Hunt's jacket, then had eight others executed after surrendering, one killed by Witton as he tried to escape.

A German missionary named David Heese who had tried to comfort the men was killed by Handcock.

Morant and Handcock were shot by firing squad, telling their executioners: "Shoot straight you bastards."

Witton was also sentenced to death, but was released after a review of the case brought outrage from the Australian and South African governments.

The others were cashiered, reprimanded, or not charged.

Unkles maintains that Morant and Handcock were denied due process under the military law of the day, and that key evidence was withheld. They were also denied the right of appeal.

HARRY 'BREAKER' MORANT

Born in Somerset, England, in 1864, his official parents were workhouse manager Edwin Murrant and his teacher wife Catherine, but rumours have circulated over the years of an illegitimate aristocratic birth and the need to flee to Australia at age 19 to escape a wild youth.

Well-educated but still wild, Morant was almost designed for the colonial outback: a hard-drinking, womanising, crack horseman - his nickname came from his skill at breaking horses - brawler and thief, whose first marriage broke up after he stole pigs and a saddle, and neglected to pay for the wedding.

He was also a poet, whose work was published in the Bulletin magazine and who was friends with bush poets Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson.