Breaker Morant was no digger hero

He has been portrayed as a romantic larrikin Aussie treated as a scapegoat and martyr in Britain's brutal 19th century war against South Africa.

[Keith Vaughan]

No such person as Harry Harbord Morant existed. No entry exists in Birth Records of England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales. Entries for H.H. Morant in Australian army records are incosistent.

[I dont understand]

Keith Vaughan wrote:

No such person as Harry Harbord Morant existed. No entry exists in Birth Records of England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales. Entries for H.H. Morant in Australian army records are incosistent.

No response to this. I wonder if it is because everybody agrees with you, or everybody disagrees with you?

[Jeff Cramer]

well there certainly seems to be a plethora of information out there regarding H.H. Morant, including a book written by George Witton who was under his command...I might suggest doing a little deeper research before making such boldly idiotic claims...

[Mike Coster]

Well said Jeff a modicum of research has provided the following information. Perhaps the change in the spelling of the surname "Murrant" may have caused "I don't understand" difficulty in locating a birth record.
Accounts of Morant's life before the Boer War vary considerably, and it appears that Morant himself fabricated a number of these romantic legends. His full name was Edwin Henry Murrant and he was born in Bridgwater Workhouse in December 1864. His father (posthumous) was the Workhouse master and his mother, formerly Catherine Riely, was the matron He spent his early years in the Union Workhouse in Bridgwater, England, where his mother continued her employment as matron after the death of her husband in August 1864
Morant is often described as being 'well-educated'. He claimed to be the illegitimate son of Admiral Sir George Digby Morant of the Royal Navy, a claim often repeated as fact by later writers, although the Admiral denied it. There is actually no evidence that the Admiral was his father and it is very unlikely.
It has been suggested that the young Morant came into the care of a wealthy Scottish author, soldier, hunt-master and golfer, George Whyte-Melville. Like other stories there is no evidence for this theory. Morant migrated to Australia in 1883 and settled in outback Queensland. Over the next fifteen years, working in Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia, the charismatic roustabout made a name for himself as a hard-drinking, womanising bush poet and gained renown as a fearless and expert horseman

[Duke City]

Read George's book, "Scapegoats of the Empire" some 24 years ago. Then it took the inter-library system outside of Chicago sometime to find and produce a copy for me. Betcha it's not in the Kitchener estate lirary.

[Duke City]

or in the LIBRARY, either

[Alan]

Morant was indeed real. Records of the trial exist as to his poems and stories written for The Bulliten. One reason for his fame and the public outcry over the execution of both he and Handcock was the Morant was a friend to one A.B Patterson. Who was a fellow writer for The Bully and a war correspondent in South Africa at the time. Or perhaps our friend does not believe I'm Banjo either.

[Alan]

That should have read in Banjo sorry still working on iPhone skills

[Greg]

Breaker Morant was crook and a swindler. He stole from his employees, his first wife, Daisy Bates kicked him out for stealing.
He admitted shooting Boer prisoners under orders. He denied shooting or having anything to do with the shooting of the German cleric.
Witton catagorically states in his book "Scapegoats of the Empire" the Handcock shot the German at Morants instigation.
So their execution was not unjustified.
There is a party in Australia now wishing for Morant's pardon and rehabilitation. Just rubbish.
Another example of the Austrailian almost pathalogical hatred of British military command, and thier own conception as the only and best soldiers around. Both world wars would have been over in weeks, if left to the Aussies, and the darstarly British didn't interfere. Just like the NZ in ANZAC, spoils all their best storys.