"Shoot straight, you b******s" were the last words of Harry "The Breaker" Morant - crack horseman, poet, hero (or rogue - depending on your point of view), as he and fellow lieutenant, Peter Handcock, soldiers in the Bushveldt Carbineers ( a mainly Australian force raised in South Africa), faced a British firing squad on 27 February, 1902, in the dying days of the Boer War. They stood convicted of executing a Boer found wearing the clothes of their murdered and mutilated friend, Carbineer Captain Hunt , and some other Boer prisoners. A German missionary was also killed after Morant had suspicions about his motives in speaking with Boer prisoners, though on this charge they were found "Not guilty".
The death warrant had been signed by Lord Kitchener himself, and when he later revealed, in writing, that he had issued orders to kill Boers wearing English uniforms, and furthermore that the court martial was conducted hurriedly and in secret, contrary to regulations, and the transcripts were "lost", reaction in Australia was such that changes to military law were brought in and since their execution no Australian has been tried on a capital charge by a British Army Court..
Morant and Handcock were buried together in a joint grave, initially near where they were shot in Pietersberg. The grave was later moved to Heroes Acre in Pretoria where, 100 years after the execution, a small ceremony saw the placing of a plaque, a final recognition of the two who many believe were sent to their death as scapegoats for what had become an unpopular and untenable war. Take a few minutes to find the grave and spend a moment in reflection on the ways of war, the young men who fight and the old men who send them to their fate.
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Website: http://www.southaustralianhistory.com.au/breakermorant.htm
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on Nov 16, 2005
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