Breaker Morant Military person

Harry "The Breaker" Harbord Morant (9 December 1864 – 27 February 1902) was an Anglo-Australian drover, horseman, poet, and military officer. While commanding an elite British Army unit during the Second Boer War, Captain Morant was arrested and court-martialed for war crimes. According to military prosecutors, Morant had retaliated for the combat death of a fellow officer with the summary execution of nine Afrikaner POWs. He was found guilty and sentenced to death. Captain Morant was then court-martialed for the murder of a Lutheran minister, Rev. Daniel Heese. The German-born Heese had witnessed the POW massacre, indignantly vowed to inform Morant's commanding officer, and had been shot to death on the way to the British Army HQ. Morant was acquitted of the Heese murder, but his sentence for the POW massacre was carried out by a firing squad drawn from the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders on 27 February 1902.Despite having left a written confession in his cell, Captain Harry Morant has become a folk hero in modern Australia. His court-martial and death have been the subject of books, a stage play, and an award-winning Australian New Wave film adaptation by director Bruce Beresford. Many now regard Morant as a scapegoat or even as the victim of a miscarriage of justice. Beresford has expressed regret that his film has contributed to this belief:"The film never pretended for a moment that they weren't guilty. It said they are guilty. But what was interesting about it was that it analysed why men in this situation would behave as they had never behaved before in their lives. It's the pressures that are put to bear on people in war time... Look at all the things that happen in these countries committed by people who appear to be quite normal. That was what I was interested in examining. I always get amazed when people say to me that this is a film about poor Australians who were framed by the Brits."

Personal facts

Alias (AKA)	Morant Harry Harbord
Birth date	December 09, 1864
Birth place	England , Bridgwater , Somerset
Date of death	February 27, 1902
Place of death	Pretoria , South Africa

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Military person

allegiance	British Empire
military operations	Second Boer War
military unit	Bushveldt Carbineers Colonial forces of Australia
service start	1899
service end	1902