Australia has petitioned the British government to pardon two Australians who fought as Bushveldt Carbineers (BVC), a paramilitary unit, in the Anglo Boer War.
Henry (also called Harry) “Breaker” Morant and Peter Handcock were court martialled and executed in 1902 after they had killed 12 prisoners of war and a German missionary who was a witness to the murders.
Morant was a British-born soldier who immigrated to Australia at the age of 19 and volunteered to fight with Britain in the Anglo Boer War in South Africa. The Breaker Morant story has become part of the Australian folklore and was filmed in 1980.
In South Africa, historian Dr CAR Schulenberg writes of the BVC that their story is one of “a brutal and undisciplined British regiment … the story of murders of unarmed Boers who raised a white flag and wanted to give themselves over and the murder of an innocent German missionary of the Berlin Mission.”
The petition, sent in February by the Australian attorney-general, was written by military lawyer James Unkles, who will visit the Soutpansberg area on March 31 and April 1. Nick Bleszinski, who wrote the book entitled Shoot straight you bastards, the alleged last words of Morant, will accompany Unkles.
The Australian Channel 9 crew will arrive in the Soutpansberg a few days before Unkles and Bleszynski. Local historian and author Charles Leach will meet the Channel 9 team and crew on March 28 and escort them from Johannesburg to the north. They will do a documentary on the BVC story, which will be used in their 60-minute programme, similar to the South African Carte Blanche.
The Australians could not wish for a better ‘tour guide’, since Leach has been researching the Breaker Morant story for the past six years as part of the research for his book that is now nearing completion.
With his research, Leach has probably come as close to the truth as possible after more than a century.
“From a South African point of view, I cannot see how officers and soldiers can be pardoned for the murder of at least 34 civilians. Does that make them innocent if there were flaws in the court martial procedures? Does that warrant a pardon? Does Australia want to uphold self-confessed murderers? My mission is to show the true South African story because, for more than a hundred years, the world has heard the Australian side of the story,” Leach said.
As far as the number of murders goes, Leach has damning evidence that it was not 12 but at least 34. Many black touleiers (camp attendants) who helped the Boer soldiers had been murdered. Children had also been murdered.
Morant, in his letter “We shot the Boers who killed and mutilated our friend”, refers to the murder of Captain Percy Hunt. Leach researched the way that different tribes mutilated their slain and concluded that it was not the doing of Boer soldiers. A Boer soldier had been killed and mutilated in a similar way.
Craig Wilcox of Australia wrote in 2007 after a visit to the Soutpansberg, accompanied by Leach, about the “bogus legend of Breaker Morant”.
“A killer’s tale murdered the truth” was the title of his article, referring to the book of George Witton, who was accused with Morant and Handcock but was later liberated.
Despite the truth that Leach feels that he has discovered, he is a bit apprehensive about facing the big Australian canons.
“Fortunately, I will have the best back-up in the person of Prof Louis Changouin when speaking to Unkles and Bleszinsky,” Leach said.