17 Facts About George Witton

George Ramsdale Witton was a lieutenant in the Bushveldt Carbineers in the Boer War in South Africa.

George Witton was sentenced to death for murder after the shooting of nine Boer prisoners.

George Witton was reprieved by Lieutenant-General Viscount Kitchener on the grounds that he was following the orders of his colleagues.

George Witton served as a gunner in the Victorian Artillery Corps, then enlisted in the Victorian Imperial Bushmen for the Boer War and was promoted from Corporal to Squadron Quartermaster-Sergeant.

George Witton had been ill twice in prison in England, once from arsenic fumes in a metal shop and once from typhoid fever.

George Witton returned to Australia on 12 November 1904, embittered after serving nearly three years at HMP Lewes, and wrote a book giving his version of the events involving Morant, Handcock and the BVC.

George Witton claimed that many of the accusations about them, which led to their arrest and trial, were made by disaffected members of their regiment whose rebellious behaviour had been suppressed by Morant and Handcock.

George Witton lived in Gippsland, Victoria and in Queensland where he was a dairy farmer at 'Dundarrah' property, Coalstoun Lakes, and by 1928, director of the Biggenden cheese factory.

Some of George Witton's correspondence was cited in the 1932 Queensland royal commission into the butter industry and commissions paid to butter company managers.

George Witton was involved as the secretary and treasurer of the Biggenden Golf Club, and a cup was in his name; and involved in competitive rifle shooting.

George Witton died in March 1931, aged 56 years, and was buried at the Lutwyche Cemetery, Brisbane.

George Witton did not have any children, although George and Mary Witton in 1928 sought to adopt an orphan, only to be denied on the grounds that George Witton had been dismissed with disgrace from the British armed forces.

In 1929, George Witton revealed in a letter to James Francis Thomas that Peter Handcock had confessed to murdering Rev Daniel Heese on Morant's orders shortly after they were both acquitted.

George Witton had a heart attack while cranking his car engine, and died in hospital on 14 August 1942, at the age of 68.

George Witton was buried with his first wife Mary in Brisbane's Lutwyche Cemetery which, coincidentally, is located on the corner of Gympie and Kitchener Roads.

George Witton's will indicated he was a retired estate agent, late of 41 Maling Road, Canterbury, Melbourne, Victoria, the executor being his nephew.

George Witton appeared before it, along with others including historian Craig Wilcox.