The Second Boer War, also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics over the Empire's influence in Southern Africa from 1899 to 1902.
Harry Harbord "The Breaker" Morant, more popularly known as Breaker Morant, was an English drover, horseman, bush poet, military officer, and war criminal who was convicted and executed for murdering six prisoners-of-war (POWs) and three captured civilians in two separate incidents during the Second Anglo-Boer War.
Breaker Morant is a 1980 Australian war drama film directed by Bruce Beresford, who co-wrote the screenplay based on Kenneth G. Ross's 1978 play of the same name.
A carabinier is in principle a soldier armed with a carbine, musket, or rifle, which became commonplace by the beginning of the Napoleonic Wars in Europe. The word is derived from the identical French word carabinier.
George Ramsdale Witton was a lieutenant in the Bushveldt Carbineers in the Boer War in South Africa. He was sentenced to death for murder after the shooting of nine Boer prisoners. He was subsequently reprieved by Lieutenant-General Viscount Kitchener, albeit Lieutenants Peter Handcock and Harry "Breaker" Morant, who were court martialled with him, were both executed by firing squad on 27 February 1902.
The 1902 court-martial of Breaker Morant was a war crimes prosecution that brought to trial six officers – Lieutenants Harry "Breaker" Morant, Peter Handcock, George Witton, Henry Picton, Captain Alfred Taylor and Major Robert Lenehan – of the Bushveldt Carbineers (BVC), an irregular regiment of mounted rifles during the Second Boer War.
The Johannesburg Light Horse Regiment, is a reserve armoured car reconnaissance unit of the South African Army.
Peter Joseph Handcock was an Australian-born Veterinary Lieutenant and convicted war criminal who served in the Bushveldt Carbineers during the Boer War in South Africa.
Peter von Hagenbach, also Pierre de Hagenbach, Pietro di Hagenbach, Pierre d'Archambaud, or Pierre d'Aquenbacq, was a Burgundian knight from Alsace, German military and civil commander, and convicted war criminal. The trial of Hagenbach was the first known war crimes trials in history.
Captain Alfred James "'Bulala" Taylor was an Irish military officer who was active in Africa during the Scramble for Africa and the Second Boer War. He is best known as a defendant in one of the first war crimes prosecutions in British military history. Born into a middle class Protestant family in Dublin, Ireland, Taylor jumped ship in Cape Town in 1886 and served in the British South Africa Police of the British South Africa Company (BSAC). He played a major role in the conquest of modern-day Zimbabwe by the company. During two subsequent uprisings by the Northern Ndebele people against Company rule in Rhodesia, Taylor was dubbed by the Ndebele "Bulala" and "Bamba".
His Majesty's Prison Lewes is a local category B prison located in Lewes in East Sussex, England. The term local means that the prison holds people on remand to the local courts, as well as sentenced prisoners. The prison is operated by His Majesty's Prison Service.
Breaker Morant: A Play in Two Acts is an Australian play written by Kenneth G. Ross, centred on the court-martial and the last days of Lieutenant Harry "Breaker" Morant (1864–1902) of the Bushveldt Carbineers (BVC), that was first performed at the Athenaeum Theatre, in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, on Thursday, 2 February 1978, by the Melbourne Theatre Company.
The military history of Australia during the Boer War is complex, and includes a period of history in which the six formerly autonomous British Australian colonies federated to become the Commonwealth of Australia. At the outbreak of the Second Boer War, each of these separate colonies maintained their own, independent military forces, but by the cessation of hostilities, these six armies had come under a centralised command to form the Australian Army.
British war crimes are acts committed by the armed forces of the United Kingdom that have violated the laws and customs of war since the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, from the Boer War to the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021). Such acts have included the summary executions of prisoners of war and unarmed shipwreck survivors, the use of excessive force during the interrogation of POWs and enemy combatants, and the use of violence against civilian non-combatants and their property.
Carl August Daniel Heese was a South African missionary murdered during the Second Boer War. Although two officers of the Bushveldt Carbineers (BVC), Breaker Morant and Peter Handcock, were tried in connection with the murder and acquitted, there is evidence that Handcock later confessed to the killing. Both Morant and Handcock were executed in 1902, after being convicted of other murders.
Pardons for Morant, Handcock and Witton, three Australian soldiers, were sought from their court-martial convictions for British atrocities - the murder of Boer prisoners-of-war and local civilians - during the Second Boer War.
Captain Percy Frederic Hunt was French-born, British army officer who was killed in action by the Letaba Commando at Duivelskloof during the Second Boer War. After Hunt's death, his subordinate and close friend, Lt. Harry Morant, responded with a series of revenge killings of both POWs and many local civilians. This led directly to the Court-martial of Breaker Morant, one of the first war crimes prosecutions in British military history.
The South Australian Mounted Rifles (SAMR) was a mounted infantry unit of the Colony of South Australia that served in the Second Boer War. The first contingent of South Australian Mounted Rifles was raised in 1899, followed by a second contingent in 1900.
Major James Francis Thomas, was a solicitor from Tenterfield, New South Wales.
Frederick Ramon de Bertodano y Wilson, 8th Marquis de Moral(1871–1955) was an Australian born officer in the British Army during the Second Matabele War and the Second Anglo-Boer War. In his capacity as "Intelligence Officer for Pretoria and the Northern Districts," Captain de Bertodano was instrumental in the investigation that resulted in the court-martial of Breaker Morant.
