47 Facts About Breaker Morant

Breaker Morant was accused of the summary execution of Floris Visser, a wounded POW, and the slaying of four Afrikaners and four Dutch schoolteachers who had surrendered at the Elim Hospital, five of whom were members of the Soutpansberg Commando.

Breaker Morant's father died in August 1864, four months before the birth of his son.

Breaker Morant's mother continued her employment as matron until her retirement in 1882.

Breaker Morant died in July 1899 while her son was in Renmark, South Australia, just six months before he embarked for military service in South Africa.

Breaker Morant claimed to have been born in 1865 at Bideford, Devon, England, and to be the son of Admiral Sir George Digby Breaker Morant of the Royal Navy, a claim repeated as fact by later writers, although the Admiral denied it.

Around a year after his arrival, Breaker Morant first settled in outback Queensland.

Breaker Morant gained a reputation as a boozer, a womaniser, a bush poet and as an expert horseman.

Breaker Morant was one of the few who managed to ride the notorious buckjumper Dargin's Grey in a horse race that became legendary.

Breaker Morant worked in a variety of occupations; he reportedly traded horses in Charters Towers, then worked for a time for a newspaper at Hughenden during 1884.

Breaker Morant then relocated around for some time until he found work as a bookkeeper and storeman in the Esmeralda cattle station.

In 1899, Breaker Morant enlisted with the Second Contingent of the South Australian Mounted Rifles at Adelaide.

Breaker Morant was reportedly invited to visit the summer residence of South Australia's governor, Lord Tennyson.

In many respects, the terrain and climate of South Africa are similar to that of outback Australia, so Breaker Morant was in his element.

Breaker Morant was at the Battle of Diamond Hill and was then part of General French's staff, Cavalry Brigade, as war correspondent with Bennet Burleigh of the London Daily Telegraph.

Breaker Morant accompanied that unit through Middelburg and Belfast to the occupation of Barberton.

Hunt had actually been in Pretoria during Breaker Morant's given timeline of these events, acting as Marriage Commissioner.

Breaker Morant had not obtained the forgiveness for his debts that he had been seeking in England.

Breaker Morant's plans changed when he obtained a commission in the Bushveldt Carbineers on 1 April 1901.

Breaker Morant said: 'I bear no hatred against England; I hate no one; everyone is welcome in our country, whether he be a Frenchman, or German, or American, or Englishman.

When news of Hunt's death reached the fort, it had a profound effect on Breaker Morant; Witton said he became "like a man demented".

Breaker Morant immediately ordered every available man out on patrol and broke down and cried while giving the news to the men.

Significantly, Breaker Morant did not see Hunt's body himself; according to Witton, Breaker Morant arrived about an hour after the burial.

Breaker Morant questioned the men about Hunt's death and, convinced that he had been murdered in cold blood, he again vowed to take no prisoners.

Witton alleges that Breaker Morant then declared that he had, on occasion, ignored Hunt's orders to this effect in the past, but that he would carry them out in the future.

Breaker Morant assigned a few men to guard the Mendingen Mission, which George Witton alleges the Boers had threatened to burn down in reprisal for Rev Reuter's ties to the British.

Breaker Morant continued, leading a patrol consisting of both members of the Bushveldt Carbineers and warriors from the local Lobedu people.

Breaker Morant replied that he was killed in a fair fight, shot through the chest.

Breaker Morant said no; that Captain Hunt's tunic and trousers had been found in the Cape cart.

Wrench was reminded by BVC Corporal Albert van der Westhuizen, an Afrikaner "joiner", that Breaker Morant had ordered that no more prisoners were to be brought in, as the Troopers would then have to share their rations with them.

Breaker Morant claims to have been told by Henry Ledeboer after shooting the Dutchman that the man who lunged at him was "a most notorious scoundrel" and "the head of a band of marauders".

Breaker Morant persuaded Lenehan to let him command a strong patrol out to search for a small Boer unit commanded by Field-cornet Kelly, an Irish-Boer commando whose farm was in the district.

Breaker Morant's patrol left Fort Edward on 16 September 1901 with orders from Lenehan that Kelly and his men were to be captured and brought back alive if possible.

Breaker Morant came up to me and said that his trial for the shooting of the Missionary was a scandal and a disgrace to the Army, that he was innocent, and that he was selected as a victim because he had shot a few damned Boers.

Breaker Morant later told me that we had to play into his hands, or else they would know what to expect.

Breaker Morant had come, he said, to complain bitterly about the indignity put upon three of his officers in that they had been sent to Pretoria in handcuffs.

Breaker Morant [Lenehan] was taken to Cape Town, under escort I believe, and shipped to Australia on the first available steamer.

Breaker Morant spent most of the night writing and then penned a final sardonic verse, which he titled, Butchered to Make a Dutchmen's Holiday.

On 13 March 1884, Breaker Morant married Daisy May O'Dwyer, who was later to become famous as an anthropologist.

Breaker Morant declared his age to be twenty-one, but he was actually nineteen, which made their marriage illegal.

Breaker Morant claimed, at a Court of Enquiry in South Africa, to have become engaged to one of two sisters in England, with Captain Percy Hunt being engaged to the other.

Breaker Morant's release was notified to the British House of Commons on 10 August 1904.

Breaker Morant published it during 1907 with the provocative title Scapegoats of the Empire.

Breaker Morant died of cholecystitis and pneumonia at Bulawayo Memorial Hospital on 24 October 1941.

Breaker Morant became in later life a well known game ranger at Kruger National Park.

Breaker Morant became Resident Magistrate in Pietersburg and, as such, became involved with some of the descendants of the Bushveldt Carbineers victims.

Breaker Morant was deeply committed to the cause of justice by way of compensation for the families of those victims and he soon became well known in the town and surrounding district.

Breaker Morant's devotees argue that he and Handcock were unfairly singled out for punishment even though many other British soldiers were known to have committed summary executions of Boer prisoners.