George Witton News Today

In 1988, Harry “the Breaker” Morant was found innocent, according to an unofficial ‘retrial’ held in Burra in South Australia. The verdict rejected the official guilty verdict of one of British military history’s most controversial trials.

One of the most controversial episodes in Australian military history has taken a new turn, 120 years on.

Advertisement Why is the fine town of Bathurst honouring for perpetuity a convicted war criminal, who among other atrocities shot a fellow soldier thought to be a potential whistleblower and gunned down unarmed prisoners, a pastor and two Boer children? I refer to Lieutenant Peter Handcock who in February 1902 was executed with Lieutenant Harry “Breaker” Morant, after being court-martialled and convicted of committing murder while on active duty. An undated photo shows officers involved in...