History
October 2020
Breaker Morant
by Peter FitzSimons
Harry 'Breaker' Morant rivals Ned Kelly as an archetypal Australian folk hero. But Morant was a complicated man. Born in England and immigrating to Australia in 1883, he established a reputation as a rider, polo player and poet. Travelling on his wits and the goodwill of others, Morant was quick to act when appeals were made for horsemen to serve in the war in South Africa. But in October 1901 Lieutenant Harry Morant and two other Australians, Lieutenants Peter Handcock and George Witton, were arrested for the murder of Boer prisoners. Morant and Handcock were court-martialled and executed in February 1902 as the Boer War was in its closing stages, but the debate over their convictions continues to this day. Peter FitzSimons takes us to the harsh landscape of southern Africa and into the bloody action of war. The truths FitzSimons uncovers about 'the Breaker' and the part he played in the Boer War are astonishing – and finally we will know if the Breaker was a hero, a cad, a scapegoat or a criminal.
