This is the published version:

Thomason, Bronwyne 2014, A slippery bastard : B J Thomason on the legend of Breaker Morant, Overland, no. 214, Autumn, pp. 10‐16.

Available from Deakin Research Online:

http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30062472

Reproduced with the kind permission of the copyright owner.

Copyright : 2014, O. L. Society

A SLIPPERY BASTARD

BJ THOMASON ON THE LEGEND OF BREAKER MORANT

n July 2013, a moot appeal at the Victorian campaigned on Morant’s behalf for almost a ISupreme Court ruled that Harry ‘Breaker’ decade, hopes the recent interest will further Morant and his co-accused, pressure British authorities to issue a post- and Peter Handcock, were unfairly tried for humous pardon. crimes committed during the final part of the The appeal did not find the soldiers Second Boer War (1899-1902).1 The three sol- innocent of the murders – in fact, Morant diers were court-martialled for the murder of was almost certainly guilty – but ruled that nine captured Boers,2 and Morant and Hand- they had been denied a fair trial and execut- cock were executed on 27 February 1902. ed before a chance of appeal (Morant and Last year’s non-binding verdict – along Handcock were both shot within eighteen with a recent two-part documentary, Breaker hours of sentencing). Moreover, the court Morant: The Retrial – has renewed calls found that the accused had followed Lord for an official inquest into the convictions. Kitchener’s order – obeying one’s supervi- Military lawyer James Unkles, who features sor was a legitimate legal defence up until heavily in the documentary and who has the Nuremberg Trials – to take no prisoners

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- - - ISSUE 214 OVERLAND In Search of Breaker O’Dwyer and Edwin Henry Murrant, Murrant, and EdwinO’Dwyer Henry age twenty-ongentleman, (note: toaccording would he record, birth the twentyhave turned in December 1884) records: Ed H Morant, 1884 – court age undefined thief, second contin 1899 – enlistment in Morant Harbord Harry Lieut. gent: Harbord Harry 1901 – prison records: age convicted murderer, Morant, thirty-five. other Australian anti-heroes other Australian anti-heroes Read, was a slippery bastard. In his personal life, Morant, like such as Ned Kelly and Chopper Exactly changed when Edwin Henry Harbord his Christian names to Harry In their biography, In their biography, Morant avoided paying the clergyman Morant The couple never – and Morant divorced Some biographers argue that his wife, biographers Some • • • continued to fabricate his past. Carbineer, and Bushveldt Balladist Morant: Shields note Carnegie and Frank Margaret the limited evidence from this period: Daisy May O’Dwyer (later Daisy Bates, the Daisy May Aboriginal activist famous anthropologist, and writer), encouraged him to change his While the marriage tosurname Morant. trans doesbeginningthe mark Murrant’s of formation, his name did not alter until after he and Daisy had split. his honorarium for the marriage ceremony; wrote a shortly after the marriage, Morant cheque to pay for a saddle and some horses Theand then quickly left Charters Towers. cheque was dishonoured. When he was was also charged with steal Morant caught, ing thirty-two pigs. - - fighting on fighting 3 1883 – shipping records: Ed Murrant, – shipping records: Ed Murrant, 1883 age twenty (note: according to the birth record, he would have turned nineteen in December 1883) May 1884 – marriage certificate: Daisy 1871 – census records, Bridgwater– census 1871 Edwin Henry Union Workhouse: age six scholar, Murrant, College: 1881 – census records, Silesia age tutor, Murrant, EdwinHenry seventeen 1864 – birth certificate: Edwin Henry 1864 – birth certificate: Edwin Murrant Official records show his transformation Official records show his transformation Morant should be should for the pardoned Morant • • • • • and horseman. as follows: on 9 Decemberon by he died Before 1864. firing squad in Pretoria, he had become a lieutenantin the British army, Africa. But behalf in South of the Empire before well known throughout that he was as the BreakerAustralia – a published poet Register Office warn that ‘a certificate is not Register Office warn that evidence of identity’ and that is certainly true in this case. The Breaker did not start his certificate Morant: Harbord life as Harry born Murrant, states that he is Edwin Henry in the subdistrict of Bridgwater in Somerset of research, however, I am in no doubt I am in no of research, however, like other that in his personal life, Morant, and Kelly anti-heroessuch as Ned Australian Chopper Read, was a slippery bastard. General certificates issued by England’s Birth to risk a scandal by defending them – in fact, to them – in fact, a scandal by defending risk LordKitchener death their signed himself warrants. The martial, Unkles con courts cludes, were a sham. sake of military justice. After years four and to shoot Boers uni in British caught to Unkles, when Morant, form. According and Witton with were charged Handcock officer refused their commanding murder, is uncertain, nor is it known when he Just before leaving for South Africa, invented the tale that Admiral Sir George Morant worked for the Ogilvie family on Digby Morant was his father, for he told Paringa Station in South Australia and them in Charters Towers [in Queensland] that he had been educated by an uncle. There is no doubt he had a chip on his It is now generally understood shoulder which made him boastful.4 that during his time in Australia, Morant was a fabricator and Other writers who knew Morant perpetu- that his familial connections ated a number of the myths he had initiated. were contrived. Major Claude Jarvis met him in Pretoria, just before Morant joined the .5 In his 1943 autobiography, visited the well-known Morant family at Half a Life, Jarvis is sympathetic, describ- their orange orchard in Renmark. Charles ing Morant as ‘one of those extraordinarily Morant, known as the ‘Colonel’, was the attractive “ne’er-do-wells”’6 and Morant’s exe- brother of Admiral Digby Morant, whom cution as ‘the most ghastly tragedy of the Harry claimed was his father. The Colonel war’.7 He relates the rumour that ‘in his was renowned in the region for his great youth [Morant] had been in the Navy and kindness and unvarying courtesy, and he had been forced to resign from the Service had been hospitable to Harry Morant during over some escapade or other’.8 In response, his many visits. But it is now generally Jarvis received several letters from Morant understood that during his time in Australia, sympathisers, and this correspondence has Morant was a fabricator and that his familial contributed to the ongoing mythology sur- connections were contrived. rounding Morant’s personal history.9 In Closed File, Kit Denton describes One letter came from the daughter of a Morant’s relationship with the two families: Major Bolton of the Wilts Regiment, who claimed that her father had been the prov- Miss Hilda Truman of Adelaide has told ost marshal at Bloemfontein in 1901 and me in letters and in conversation that was prosecutor during some of the hearings. Charles always considered Harry to be In her letter, she claims that on the train to his relative; as did the Cutlack family of Pretoria just before he and his companions South Australia, a household where The were executed, Morant had told her father Breaker was a frequent visitor, a friend of that he ‘had been in the Navy, but had got the father of the house, and known well into trouble over a card debt which had enough for F M Cutlack to have detailed forced him to leave the service and embark in his book Breaker Morant much of what on a roving life’.10 But this was written forty the family knew of Harry’s life, although years after the events by a woman who was it must be understood that those details ten years of age at the time. were supplied by Harry and with no sup- The biographer Frederic Cutlack porting proof.12 acknowledges that the story of the Breaker is tantalising but ‘obviously lacking in certain There is no physical evidence to support details’.11 Looking closely at Morant’s differ- Morant’s story that he was Digby Morant’s ent incarnations, it is clear that he was not son, despite having been accepted as a ‘rela- averse to colouring his past. tive’ by the Cutlack family and the Renmark

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ISSUE 214 Oliver Twist and Morant had a and Morant OVERLAND 23 was perceived. Workhouse children, in particular, children, in particular, Workhouse

to Morant was how he 19 18 What seemed important An association with the workhouse she did in fact she did in the workhouse live at 22 17 Morant was probably ashamed of his was Morant particular affinityparticular in with Irish immigrants wifehe Irish, and also was His Australia. went droving with his Irish friends. Through we know of the poetry, very early Morant’s and Brumby Bill Magee, Paddy Irishmen The recorded Bridgwater Union Workhouse with– vagrants and tramps suchcomments beside their names and ‘imbecile’ as ‘lunatic’ siteon living as – periodthe during when was listed as a ‘schol Murrant Edwin Henry points out, as Russell Ward Furthermore, ar’. class was more generally despised ‘if any than the paupers,was those who guarded it them’. image of him system contradicted Morant’s self as a well-connected gentleman. association with poetry and horse Morant’s his in part considerable a plays manship but here in Australia, particularly legend, both add to of these also his elusiveness as His earliest poems exposea historical figure. connectionIrish an of something which of mother was the daugh he spoke little. His ter of an Irish farmer, ‘vanished from the face of the globe’ after of the globe’ the face from ‘vanished 1866, She lateruntil 1891. to returned live in Devon, at the age of she died in 1899 where sixty-six. In the wake of workhouse history. family’s classic 1838 Charles Dickens’ workhouses had become infamous as places ‘pas a abandon, and prostitution disease, of of the nineteenthsive emblem of misery century’. carriers of disease. were regarded as the

- - - 13 TheBulletin 16 14 It led to a mutual respect 15 a request for prime veal. In the course of a month or six weeks I In the course of a month or six weeks I intend departing from these regions to find it prosper try Coolgardie.I don’t If ous over there, next Christmas will find one prodigal up in England with turning than most people … anything except than most people… anything matter know what is the work. I don’t seems to bewith brimming the chap. He over with flashness. [H]e says he is the son of an English son of is the [H]e says he he has good and and manners Admiral better can do anything education. He Yet Morant’s immediate family was not Morant’s Yet The was fascinated younger Paterson Paterson’s uncle Andrew Barton, uncle Andrew who Paterson’s What seemed important to Morant was importantWhat seemed to Morant retired workhouse matron. Moreover, until Moreover, matron. workhouse retired Edwinyounger the Murrant eight, age of the Bridgwaterat the himself lived Union While Carnegie and Shields Workhouse. Catherine, mother, claim that Morant’s as wealthy as he implied. Theas wealthy father named on his birth certificateEdwin (also named was deceased; his mother was a Murrant) with Morant, and thoroughly enjoyed their enjoyed and thoroughly withMorant, first encounter. that resulted in the exchange of dozens of letters often harked back letters. Morant’s to life among the upper classes of Devon. In 1895 he wrote: had employed Morant, warned his nephew: warned had employed Morant, how he was perceived.how he was The idea that he was him to enabled associate with a ‘gentleman’ cultural and social elite, espe Australia’s poetsthe cially connected with the bush balladeer and – and, in particular, Paterson. writer ‘Banjo’ branch of the Morant family. The admiral family. of the Morant branch denied pater and publicly himself fervently death. nity – even after the Breaker’s Brigalow Mick. In one of Morant’s final out of the yard but turned him round and letters, exchanged between prisoners in jumped back again; the horse did not Pietersburg gaol cells, Morant takes on an touch the fence on either occasion. It was air of dark humour but concludes with a a wonderful performance.26 prayer to Ireland: On another occasion, it is said that drink- Dartmoor! ing led the Breaker to wager his horse, At 7.45 they open the doors Cavalier, to jump a seven-foot picket fence, And the Promenade’s flooded with at which the poor animal baulked but London’s------s ‘scrambled over’.27 God Save Oireland!- Thine TONY Yet this story has many variations: in Lieut Hannam, per favor Gar.-Adjt.24 some versions Morant was blindfolded;28 in others, he jumped the horse by candlelight Ireland was not his birthplace, and yet it or by the light of matches placed on the is significant that in Morant’s final hours his fence posts. words should so prominently point to his It is important to understand that acknowledgement of an Irish ancestry. But The Bulletin writers had to, as Richard while Morant’s early Australian experiences Fotheringham argues, ‘be able to demon- and his early poetry allude to an Irish herit- strate their bush credentials, and to claim age, this aspect vanishes in his later works the verisimilitude of the representation of – and none of his poetry ever reflected or that experience as their greatest achieve- acknowledged the workhouse. ment.’29 Paterson himself was a city dweller Morant was also known as a skilled horse and yet seen as authority on the Outback, breaker, but like his claim to gentlemanly just as Arthur Hoey Davis became famous connections, the stories of his horseman- as his bush persona ‘Steele Rudd’.30 ship are questionable. The first reference Beyond the pages of The Bulletin, Morant to Morant as a horse breaker occurs in was as much known for his arrogant exhi- 1887 when he was admitted to hospital in bitionism as for horse breaking. He was Muttaburra, where his admission form frequently in the news for his accidents recorded him as working in that capacity involving horses, and when he had enlisted on Maneroo Station.25 Shortly after this, in in South Australia for the war, the Windsor 1889, Morant’s first poems appeared in The and Richmond Gazette joked that ‘if Morant Bulletin under his pen-name, the Breaker. had gone for the NSW contingent he would His equestrian antics were remembered probably have been “spun for bad riding”’.31 many years after his death: A gossip segment in the same paper suggests that the stories of his legendary The Breaker backed himself to jump the horsemanship have likely been overstated: creamy over the fence barebacked – the stakes, drinks all round. The fence was As announced last week, Mr Harry a solid four-railed, about 4 feet 8 inches Morant (‘The Breaker’) met with an high; on the landing side there was the accident, through a fall from a horse, footpath, about 6 feet wide, and the and suffered the dislocation of his right gutter. I held up the clothes line in the shoulder. This is not the first occasion on hotel yard so that Morant would not get which Mr Morant has met with a simi- pulled off. He not only jumped the horse lar mishap, for that unlucky shoulder of

14 OVERLAND ISSUE 214 HISTORY 15 - - ISSUE 214 have to wait OVERLAND 38 Most people After 110 years of searching original And there were days before,And there were days too, down – is as he presented himself. – is as he presented The only way Australia really The only way Australia really 39 knows the man who was shot convicted of multiple murders convicted of multiple murders at dawn on 27 February 1902 – – Poor old Breaker! – Poor Poor beggar, how well I remember him: beggar, Poor boon drunken comrade, beast, outcast, It seems but yesterdayand brave man. we trekked, starved, stoletogeth and fought er – what a mate in those long hours of night watch march – what tales he or day recite. could tell,merry rhymes what racing, days of Australia: sunny in great of begging and starving, days of wine and women, rags, drunkenness and disgrace At the end of his life, Morant had suc had AtMorant life, his of end the The truth about the early life of Edwin presented himself. What we know for sure is presented himself. an Australian a storyteller, that he was a poet, a caricature and an anti- national character, hero whose most enduring aspect is his the Breaker – the name that he pseudonym, for himself. invented ceeded in transforming himself so that he Henry Murrant aka Harry Harbord Morant – Morant Harbord Harry aka Murrant Henry the Breaker never – may be known. As Nick writes, ‘ Bleszynski for their legend to be created by the hand of others but “The Breaker” simply wrote his own’. handwritten documents and interpreting misspelled or of trawling the transcripts, internetthe only records, for government who man the knows really Australia way 1902 – was shot at dawn on 27 February convictedas he of multiple murders – is tions, writes fondly of his friend’s exploits: writestions, his friend’s fondly of

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37 On 36

35 32 This held him in good stead with 33 been The legion. is that he only wonder lives to tell tales. the his has beenhis has broken or dislocated twice before;whilst the escapes he has had from total consequence annihilation in have falls from his horse of the frequent Recalling Morant, Major Victor Major Marra Recalling Morant, Most telling of Morant’s sadism was telling of Morant’s Most Many biographers claim that Morant was biographers claim that Morant Many Despite his foolhardiness, Morant did Despite his foolhardiness, Morant her, and he proudly confessed toconfessed proudly he and a owning her, told spear for hunting pigs. He lancer’s is not bad fun’. that ‘pigsticking Paterson who had been present at the execu Newland, described to his cruelty animals to Paterson. a letterIn he bragged 1895, from August about a dingo he had finished off ‘with that good old weapon, the stirrup-iron’. another occasion he had used a knife to aftera heifer hamstring bullets failed to drop charm to lure Aboriginal men into a round match,house or stable for a friendly boxing but would lock door the to prevent escape and beatunconscious. the man the frequency which he and vividness by made from a bullock’s horn and used it as made from a bullock’s had stand. As a child, Hawkins a smoker’s been too afraid to take it back; he and his brother kept distance from Morant. their cruelty to also describes Morant’s Hawkins he would use his Indigenous Australians: charming, but some accounts of his early charming, but some accounts of his early depictlife in Australia a man whose charac Hawkins, ter was not so innocuous. Morris early employers, the son of one of Morant’s stole a treasured bugle recalls that Morant in 1896, he had Cavalier immortalised in a in 1896, he had Cavalier portrait Prout by the famous painter Frank Mahony. must clubs, but the myths the gentlemen’s be balanced with stories those who from knew the devil in him. genuinely love horses, dedicating poemsgenuinely love horses, to his favourite Cavalier and Harlequin; horses, in no way resembled the child born to a 18 Record for Catherine Murrant, England and struggling widow in a disease-ridden work- Wales Death Index: 1837–1915. 19 Margaret Crowther, The Workhouse System, house. Nor was he truly a bastard conceived 1834-1929: The History of an English Social of a clandestine affair between his mother Institution, Methuen, London, 1983, p. 2. and an adulterous naval officer; he took the 20 ibid., p. 203. 21 Record for Edwin Stenery Marant, United credit but never the shame. He was, and Kingdom census (1871). is, the man he wanted us to believe in and 22 Ward, ‘Breaker Morant and Australian he left his ‘Last Rhyme and Testament’ in Nationalism’, p. 4. 23 Record for Catherin Newvrant, United Kingdom metered verse ‘whilst waiting cru-ci-fixion!’. census (1881). See also Carnegie & Shields, In 40 Signing, of course, as the Breaker. Search of Breaker Morant, p 7. 24 Frank Renar, Bushman and Buccaneer: Harry 1 ‘Harry “Breaker”’ Morant “Cleared” in New Morant – His ‘Ventures and Verses, HT Dunn, Trial’, ABC Online, 21 July 2013, www.abc.net.au, Sydney, 1902, p. 30. viewed 30 November, 2013. 25 Ted Robl & Jim McJanet (eds), A Backblock 2 The three were also accused of the murder of Bard: Harry Morant in Australia, Pyalong, Reverend Daniel Heese, a German missionary unpublished manuscript, p. 63. who witnessed the summary executions. 26 Cutlack, Breaker Morant, p. 33. However, this charge was dropped due to a 27 ibid., p. 32. lack of witnesses. It is also generally accepted 28 Carnegie & Shields, In Search of Breaker that Morant considered the murder of the Boer Morant, p. 20. captives a justified reprisal for the death of 29 Richard Fotheringham, ‘Arthur Hoey Davis Captain Percy Hunt, Morant’s closest friend. and Several “Steele Rudds”: Imagining the 3 PL Murray, Official Records of the Australian Pseudonymous Author’, Australian Literary Military Contingents to the War in South Africa, Studies, vol. 14, no. 3, May 1990, pp 297–305. Department of Defence, Canberra, 1911. 30 ibid., p. 300. 4 Margaret Carnegie & Frank Shields, In Search 31 Windsor and Richmond Gazette, 3 March 1900, of Breaker Morant: Balladist and Bushveldt p. 3. Carbineer, HH Stephenson, Armadale, 1979, pp. 32 ibid., 12 March 1898, p. 9. 25–26. 33 Kit Denton, Closed File, p. 73. 5 The Bushveldt Carbineers were a short-lived, 34 Carnegie & Shields, In Search of Breaker multinational mounted infantry regiment of the Morant, p. 26. British Army during the Boer conflict. 35 ibid., p. 22. 6 Claude Jarvis, Half a Life, Butler & Tanner, 36 Renar, Bushman and Buccaneer, p. 7. London, 1943, p. 127. 37 ibid., p. 8. 7 ibid., p. 126. 38 Carnegie & Shields, In Search of Breaker 8 ibid., p. 127. Morant, p. 2. 9 Frederic Cutlack, Breaker Morant: A Horseman 39 Bleszynski, Shoot Straight, You Bastards, p. 6. Who Made History, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1962, 40 David McNicoll, The Poetry of ‘Breaker’ Morant, p. 93. Golden Press, Gladesville, 1980, p. 62. 10 ibid., p. 94. 11 ibid., p. ix. 12 Kit Denton, Closed File, Rigby, Adelaide, p. 70. 13 Nick Bleszynski, Shoot Straight, You Bastards: The Truth behind the Killing of ‘Breaker’ Morant, Random House, Milsons Point, 2002, p. 3. 14 Russell Ward, ‘Breaker Morant and Australian Nationalism’, public lecture, 6 May 1981, University of the Northern Territory Planning Authority, p. 7. 15 AB ‘Banjo’ Paterson, ‘An Execution and a Royal Pardon: Dramas of Yesterday. How Morant Shot a Padre’, Sydney Morning Herald, 25 February 1939, www.nla.gov.au, accessed 17 July 2012. 16 Cutlack, Breaker Morant, p. 29. 17 ibid., p. 10.

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