DOCSLIB.ORG

A Study Guide by Robert Lewis

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Study Guide by Robert Lewis © ATOM 2014 A STUDY GUIDE BY ROBERT LEWIS http://www.metromagazine.com.au ISBN: 978-1-74295-450-9 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au OVERVIEW In 1902 two Australian soldiers were CURRICULUM arrested for killing prisoners, held in APPLICABILITY prison, allowed access to a lawyer to but his trial and hasty execution was Breaker Morant: The Retrial prepare their defence only one day a cover up for commanding officers is a resource that be used by before the trial started, denied access who issued orders to take no prison- middle and upper secondary to a key witness during the trial, found ers which they later denied. The high students in guilty, and sentenced to death. They command was imposing a program were executed one day after they were of murder and near genocide in a History: told they had been found guilty. campaign to subjugate the local Boer - The development of population in South Africa all for the Australian national identity Could this be a fair trial? purpose of controlling the newly dis- - Federation and the Early covered goldfields. Commonwealth Should an injustice be righted even - Australia and the Boer War after more than 100 years? This was the first war to be filmed by Legal Studies: the newly invented movie camera and - Law and Justice The two soldiers who were treated this the international telegraph meant that way were Lt Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant for the first time events across the Film Studies: and Lt Peter Handcock. world could be on the front page the - Documentary Film next day. The film Breaker Morant The Retrial (Gregory Miller And Nick Bleszynski, In this film fully dramatised scenes 2013, 2 x 52 minute episodes) expos- illustrate the complex story. Expert Morant story, and discovers why he es the heartless cruelty, and criminal opinion from historians and high-level came to be a scapegoat for the British SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 behaviour that was at the heart of legal practitioners are presented with Army’s scorched earth practices in the British military strategy and also new evidence revealed for the first South Africa War. It tells the full story throws a light into the darker corners time in this program. of the tireless naval lawyer, Jim Unkles of modern warfare. as he takes on the Australian and It is a journey of intrigue and mystery British Parliament seeking a pardon for Lieutenant Harry Harbord Morant as narrator Neil Pigot travels to three Morant. was charged with shooting prisoners continents to find out the real Breaker 2 BEFORE WATCHING THE FILM » UNDERSTANDING THE TIME AND THE EVENTS Harry Morant was an Englishman, born in 1864, who migrated to Queensland in 1883. His family background was disputed. He claimed to be the son, perhaps illegitimate, of Admiral Digby Morant, who denied that claim. Morant spent many years as a horse breaker in Queensland before going to Adelaide enlist in the South Australian British India) adopted simi- Mounted Rifles who were on their way lar tactics to the Boers and were Britain created the new colony of the to take part in the Boer War. successful. Union of South Africa out of the cap- • The final phase of guerilla warfare tured Boer territories and the existing This was the war in southern Africa by Boers, including the wrecking of British ones. between October 1899 and May 1902 British supply trains even though with British and Empire forces fighting they carried Boer hostages, and Every Australian colony sent a contin- against the Boers (white farmers of the British response of creating gent of troops. After Australia feder- Dutch background) in the republics of a series of forts connected by ated in 1901 the new national force, the Transvaal and Orange Free State, barbed wire, to contain the Boers, the Australian Commonwealth Horse supported by many inhabitants of while their farms and crops were was formed. A contingent was sent to British Cape Colony and Natal. The destroyed in a ‘scorched earth’ fight but did not arrive before the war Dutch republics had refused to give policy to deny the Boers any had ended. the vote to the thousands of foreigners local support. This phase also or uitlanders, mainly British, who had included interning about 28 000 In 1901 Morant and others were poured in to the republics to search for Boer women and children and over charged with these crimes: gold. If they ahd been given the vote 100 000 Africans in ‘concentration they could have outvoted the Boers camps’, where disease and mal- 1 The killing of a Boer prisoner, Visser in their own land. Britain took the op- nutrition killed about 28 000 Boers – (Lt Morant found guilty) portunity to invade and seize the gold and 14 000 Africans. This period of and diamond rich republics. the war was also characterized by 2 The killing of 8 Boer prisoners who brutality by many soldiers on both had surrendered – (Lt Morant, Lt [See Item 1 on page 12] sides towards their enemy, includ- Handcock, Lt Witton found guilty) ing killing people after they had The war went through three main surrendered. 3 The killing of a missionary, Heese, stages: who had witnessed the killing of the This was the phase of the war involving 8 Boer prisoners – (Lt Morant and Lt • An initial stage when Boer farmers, Morant’s execution. He had originally Handcock found not guilty) SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 well-armed and on good horses, fought as part of the South Australian and familiar with the environment, contingent, but from 1901 was in the Morant and Handcock were executed defeated the invading British Bush Veldt Carbineers, a unit which by firing squad on 27 February 1902. troops in several battles. was not part of any specific nation’s • A second phase when British and army, but a volunteer irregular unit. Witton’s sentence was reduced to life colonial troops (including from the imprisonment, but he was set free in Australian colonies, Canada and The Boers finally surrendered, and 1904. 3 ITEM 2 THE MAIN HISTORICAL PARTICIPANTS Harry Morant A Lieutenant in the Bushveldt Carbineers (BVC), an irregular (meaning not tied to any particular nation) force that was part of the British forces in northern Transvaal in 1901. Executed for the killing of Boer prisoners. Lt Peter Handcock An Australian officer in the BVC. Executed for the killing of prisoners. Josef Visser A Boer commando (citizen soldier) who was captured wearing part of a British uniform after the killing of Captain Hunt, and executed for his involvement in that killing on the orders of Morant. Lt-Gen Horatio The British officer in charge of all British forces in 1901. Kitchener Daniel Heese A British citizen trained as a missionary in Germany who was killed shortly after seeing the bodies of 8 executed Boer prisoners. Morant and Handcock were charged with and cleared of his murder. Lt George Witton An Australian member of the BVC. He was found guilty of killing Boer prisoners, had his death sentence reduced to life imprisonment, and was freed in 1904. He eventually returned to Australia and wrote the book Scapegoats of Empire, which claimed that Morant and Handcock were unjustly killed. Maj James Thomas A country solicitor with no experience of military law and courts martial, he was appointed the defence lawyer for Morant and the others. Maj Robert Lenehan A commanding officer of the BVC who was court martialled for failing to report the killing of 3 Boers, and the murder of the Boer member of the BVC Van Buuren by Lt Handcock. Private B J Van Buuren A Boer joiner, one who transferred from the Boer side to the British side, and who was distrusted by other BVC soldiers and officers. Capt James Robertson A senior officer in the BVC who avoided prosecution by giving evidence about the criminal acts of other BVC officers. Capt Alfred Taylor A civilian BVC intelligence officer whose nickname ‘Bulala’ meant killer. He ordered the killing of Boer SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 prisoners, and was tried for killing one African man though it is believed he killed several. Col Ian Hamilton A staff officer of Kitchener. Lt Col Francis Hall A senior British officer who failed to follow up on reports of murders by BVC officers. 4 EXPLORING IDEAS AND ISSUES IN THE FILM Breaker Morant: The Retrial explores two main themes: • Who was Breaker Morant? (mainly in Episode 1) and • The injustice of the court martials • the connection with Melville White that found Morant and Handcock • his cousin Charles in Australia guilty (mainly in Episode 2). • the hotel bill • the modern family in Hampshire • the empty envelope in the deeds » EPISODE 1 box Harry Morant 1.7 How strong is the evidence that he was Morant’s illegitimate son? 1.1 Who was ‘Breaker’ Morant? The quest The Boer War 1.2 What were his main qualities? 1.13 Why does Jim Unkles want to 1.8 What was the Boer War? see Morant pardoned? 1.3 Who was Daisy Bates? 1.9 What were the characteristics of 1.14 Who can do that? 1.4 For what did she become famous? that war? His identity The Bushveldt Carbineers » EPISODE 2 1.5 What was Morant’s name on his 1.10 How did this unit behave? This episode explores the crimes arrival in Queensland? in detail, and analyses the way the Kitchener evidence was presented in the court 1.6 He claimed to be the son, perhaps martial for the three charges. illegitimate, of Digby Morant. Discuss 1.11 What do we learn about Lord SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2014 how each piece of evidnce presented Kitchener’s character? The BVC at Fort Edward helps establish or not establish that claim: 1.12 What is the claim made in the 2.1 Identify where Fort Edward is on film about orders being given to kill this map [See Item 3 on page 12].
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Bruce Beresford's Breaker Morant Re-Viewed
    FILMHISTORIA Online Vol. 30, núm. 1 (2020) · ISSN: 2014-668X The Boers and the Breaker: Bruce Beresford’s Breaker Morant Re-Viewed ROBERT J. CARDULLO University of Michigan Abstract This essay is a re-viewing of Breaker Morant in the contexts of New Australian Cinema, the Boer War, Australian Federation, the genre of the military courtroom drama, and the directing career of Bruce Beresford. The author argues that the film is no simple platitudinous melodrama about military injustice—as it is still widely regarded by many—but instead a sterling dramatization of one of the most controversial episodes in Australian colonial history. The author argues, further, that Breaker Morant is also a sterling instance of “telescoping,” in which the film’s action, set in the past, is intended as a comment upon the world of the present—the present in this case being that of a twentieth-century guerrilla war known as the Vietnam “conflict.” Keywords: Breaker Morant; Bruce Beresford; New Australian Cinema; Boer War; Australian Federation; military courtroom drama. Resumen Este ensayo es una revisión del film Consejo de guerra (Breaker Morant, 1980) desde perspectivas como la del Nuevo Cine Australiano, la guerra de los boers, la Federación Australiana, el género del drama en una corte marcial y la trayectoria del realizador Bruce Beresford. El autor argumenta que la película no es un simple melodrama sobre la injusticia militar, como todavía es ampliamente considerado por muchos, sino una dramatización excelente de uno de los episodios más controvertidos en la historia colonial australiana. El director afirma, además, que Breaker Morant es también una excelente instancia de "telescopio", en el que la acción de la película, ambientada en el pasado, pretende ser una referencia al mundo del presente, en este caso es el de una guerra de guerrillas del siglo XX conocida como el "conflicto" de Vietnam.
    [Show full text]
  • An Infantry Officer in Court – a Review of Major James Francis Thomas As Defending Officer for Lieutenants Breaker Morant, Pe
    An Infantry Officer In Court – A Review of Major James Francis Thomas as Defending Officer for Lieutenants Breaker Morant, Peter Handcock and George Witton – Boer War Commander James Unkles, RANR Introduction Four men from Australia who joined the Boer war were to be connected by destiny in events that still intrigue historians to this day. Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant, Peter Handcock, George Ramsdale Witton and James Francis Thomas were to meet in circumstances that saw Morant and Handcock executed and Witton sentenced to life imprisonment following military Courts Martial in 1902. This article attempts to review the experiences of Major Thomas, a mounted infantry officer from Tenterfield who joined British Forces as a volunteer and ended up defending six officers, including Breaker Morant on charges of shooting Boer prisoners History of the Boer Wars 1880 - 1902 The Boer War commenced on 11 October 1899, and was fought in three distinct phases. During the first phase the Boers were in the ascendancy. In their initial offensive moves, 20,000 Boers swept into British Natal and encircled the strategic rail junction at Ladysmith. In the following weeks, Boer troops besieged the townships of Mafeking and Kimberley. Phase 1 reached its climax in what has become known as ‘Black Week’ – 10 to15 December 1899. In this one week, three British armies, each seeking to relieve the besieged townships, suffered massive and humiliating defeats in the battles of Stormberg, Magersfontein and Colenso. These defeats shook the British Empire. In response, Britain despatched two regular divisions and replaced the ill-starred General Sir Redvers Buller, with the Empire’s most eminent soldier, Field Marshall Lord Roberts VC, as its commander in South Africa.
    [Show full text]
  • Useful Knowledge 35 Spring 2014
    The Magazine of the Mechanics’ Institutes Of Victoria Inc. UsefulNo. Knowledge35 – Spring 2014 PO Box 1080, Windsor VIC 3181 Australia ISSN 1835-5242 Reg No. A0038156G ABN 60 337 355 989 Price: Five Dollars $5 "LEST WE FORGET" There would hardly be a Hall in Victoria or its Some of those who returned formed Soldier adjoining Reserve, or a nearby cenotaph that Settlements, or laboured at community projects, the words ‘Lest we Forget’ are not recorded. like the Great Ocean Road. The phrase is from Rudyard Kipling’s The A hundred years on this is an opportunity for Recessional penned for Queen Victoria’s your Hall, your community to… ‘remember them’. Diamond Jubilee in 1897. This Anzac Day why ‘Lest we forget – Lest we not also remember ‘the forget’ is repeated after going down of the sun’ an entreaty that we will with a lowering of the first four verses as on far off battlefields of Jesus Christ. kick on to a ‘welcome notThose forget threethe sacrifice iconic home’the flag. dance It couldto all localthen words ‘Lest we forget’ service personnel. A are often added at the conclusion of Laurence of Will Longstaff’s Menin Gate at midnight by Will Longstaff Binyon’s famousreflection painting at midnight ‘Menin For the Fallen. Photo from: Collection Database of the Australian ‘They shall not grow old, Gate at Midnight’ when War Memorial under the ID Number: ART09807 as we that are left grow those ghostly legions old/ Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn./ At the going of white crosses or any resting place, with the down of the sun and in the morning,/ We will sounding of The Reveillerise and aagain Roll Call from of district fields remember them.
    [Show full text]
  • The Influence of the Friendly Society Movement in Victoria 1835–1920
    The Influence of the Friendly Society Movement in Victoria 1835–1920 Roland S. Wettenhall Post Grad. Dip. Arts A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 24 June 2019 Faculty of Arts School of Historical and Philosophical Studies The University of Melbourne ABSTRACT Entrepreneurial individuals who migrated seeking adventure, wealth and opportunity initially stimulated friendly societies in Victoria. As seen through the development of friendly societies in Victoria, this thesis examines the migration of an English nineteenth-century culture of self-help. Friendly societies may be described as mutually operated, community-based, benefit societies that encouraged financial prudence and social conviviality within the umbrella of recognised institutions that lent social respectability to their members. The benefits initially obtained were sickness benefit payments, funeral benefits and ultimately medical benefits – all at a time when no State social security systems existed. Contemporaneously, they were social institutions wherein members attended regular meetings for social interaction and the friendship of like-minded individuals. Members were highly visible in community activities from the smallest bush community picnics to attendances at Royal visits. Membership provided a social caché and well as financial peace of mind, both important features of nineteenth-century Victorian society. This is the first scholarly work on the friendly society movement in Victoria, a significant location for the establishment of such societies in Australia. The thesis reveals for the first time that members came from all strata of occupations, from labourers to High Court Judges – a finding that challenges conventional wisdom about the class composition of friendly societies.
    [Show full text]
  • SA-GENEALOGIE Poslys Jaargang VII Maand 4 Saamgestel Deur: Pieter
    SA-GENEALOGIE Poslys Argiewe 2010 Jaargang VII Maand 4 April 2010 Saamgestel deur: Pieter L van der Merwe KWYTSKELDING Hierdie argief is nie ’n amptelike, wetlike dokument nie, maar ’n samestelling van die e-posse van verskillende lede van die SA Genealogie Gesprekslys soos dit gedurende die tydperk ingestuur was. Die lyseienaars en hulle bestuurspan aanvaar dus geen aanspreeklikheid vir die korrektheid van gegewens, sienings oor bepaalde gebeure, interpretasie en samestelling van familieverwantskappe, of vir enige aksies of verlies wat daaruit mag voortspruit nie, en stel voor dat persone wat hierdie bron gebruik, self eers die gegewens kontroleer. April 2010 Bundels Onderwerp: [SA-Gen] Bundel Nommer 4295 Datum: Thursday, April 01, 2010 Daar is 25 boodskappe in hierdie uitgawe Onderwerpe in hierdie bundel: 1a. Re: van Rensburg kenners From: paul_le_roux 1b. Re: van Rensburg kenners From: paul_le_roux 1c. Re: van Rensburg kenners From: stamouers 2a. Vertaal vanaf Hollands na Engels From: Grahame Naudé 3a. Re: LDS Indekseering - Suid-Afrika From: Vivian Watts 4. [Koerant] Die Burger Oos-Kaap 31 Maart 2010 From: P Marx 5a. Re: KOTZE STAMBOOM EN GESKIEDENIS From: [email protected] 6a. 'n Nuwe lid? From: Sunelia Heath 6b. Re: 'n Nuwe lid? From: Dennis Pretorius 7a. Re: Fw: familie bijbel From: Dennis Pretorius 7b. Re: Fw: familie bijbel From: Dennis Pretorius 7c. Re: Fw: familie bijbel From: Sarel Burger 8.1. Re: New file uploaded to SAGenealogie From: Rina Hartzenberg 9a. Re: Betekenis van name From: Francois Smith 10. Fw: Yahoo Groups outage affekteer SAGen From: Dennis Pretorius 11a. [koerant]Zoutnet 2008 06 09 Monuments in honour of civil war victims From: Louis Olivier 11b.
    [Show full text]
  • AUSTRALIAN VETERAN NEWS Article D2.Indd
    War crimes and the sanctity of the rule of law: The trial of Lieutenants Morant, Handcock and Witton By James Unkles “It does no good to act without the fullest inquiry and strictly on legal lines. A hasty judgment creates a martyr and unless military law is strictly followed, a sense of injustice having been done is the result” [i] “They were treated monstrously. Certainly by today’s standards they were not given any of the human rights that international treaties require men facing the death penalty be given. But even by the standards of 1902 they were treated improperly, unlawfully’. [ii] Australians have genuine regard and respect for their defence forces and such allegations are confronting. However, an equal injustice and affront to Australia’s values enshrined in our democratic institutions and judicial independence is an abrogation of due legal process for political and other agendas. Leo D’Angelo Fisher’s insightful article on alleged ADF war crimes and its refl ection on the failure of leadership in the ADF presents [iii] an opportunity to balance the assessment of allegations war crimes with the signifi cance of the preservation and promotion of the rule of rule in ensuring those accused are given the presumption of innocence, proof beyond reasonable doubt and treated in accordance with common and statutory law. Nothing less is unacceptable in a civilised society. Leo D’Angelo Fisher rightly draws comment on the trial of Lieutenants Harry Breaker Morant, Peter Hancock and George Witton, three Australian volunteers arrested, trial and sentence for alleged war crimes during the Anglo Boer War of 1902.
    [Show full text]
  • Critical Methodology and Breaker Morant
    The African e-Journals Project has digitized full text of articles of eleven social science and humanities journals. This item is from the digital archive maintained by Michigan State University Library. Find more at: http://digital.lib.msu.edu/projects/africanjournals/ Available through a partnership with Scroll down to read the article. Closing the Debate: Critical Methodology and Breaker Morant RICHARD HAINES This essay is an attempt to close a debate conducted in Vol 2 No 3, 1982, of CH.-Ltic.CLl kuti regarding the film B/teafee* Moiant. The issue contained criticisms by Peter Strauss and MM Carlin, of articles by Susan Gardner and Michael Vaughan in a Cnltlc.a.1 Ktiti monograph on the film, and the responses of Gardner and Vaughan to these critics. A subsequent letter by Carlin, appear- ing in this issue, restates his position and replies to Gardner and Vaughan's dismissal of his argument. Though Carlin and Strauss see themselves occupying conservative and left-wing positions respectively, both consider Gardner's analysis of the film, and Vaughan's discussion of Kit Denton's book The Bizakti, as exercises in sociological overkill and moral pedantry. They also feel that the film was more question- ing of imperialism than Gardner and Vaughan allow. For Strauss, George Witton plays a 'pivotal role' in the film, his disillusionment with British imperialism reflecting "the viewer's own supposed progress to a greater understanding of the brutal reality of imperialism"2. And, as Susan Gardner remarks, Strauss is right to insist that Witton be accorded more attention. Yet Witton's bewilderment at the arbitrariness of the British im- perial army and his disenchantment with 'Empire' (a more distant concept for him than the army) don't seem to me to vividly specify a sense of "the brutal reality of imperialism".
    [Show full text]
  • Australia's South African War 1899-19021
    http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za Australia's South African war 1899-19021 DR CRAIG WILCOX Australian War Memorial historian o/the Anglo-Boer War, Sydney, Australia Around twenty thousand Australians fought in the great war between the British empire and the republics of the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. Those Australians constituted five in every thousand of their people, or three in every two hundred of their male workers. In South Africa they made up just one in every twenty-five soldiers in a British army of almost half a million.2 As these bald figures immediately suggest, Australia's contribution to the war was too small to be decisive, and its experience of the war involved too few of its people to make a powerful impact on its society, let alone wrench its history onto some different course. Still, that contribution and that experience were unprecedented for a people who had never before gone to war as a people, and deserve more attention - and more balanced, dispassionate, critical attention - than they've yet received from historians of the war, of Australia, and of the British empire.3 In this lecture I'll strive for such balance by outlining why and how Australians went to war in South Africa, what their soldiers did there, and the war's legacy for their country and their descendants today. This lecture, presented at the South African Military Academy on 28 September 1999, rests on research toward a new history of Australians and the South African war commissioned by the Australian War Memorial in Canberra and due for publication in May 2002.
    [Show full text]
  • Mstory of the STANDARD BANK GROUP*
    mSTORY OF THE STANDARD BANK GROUP* The City of Port Elizabeth on the coast of the foot of the African conti­ nent was founded in 1799 when Fort Frederick was built by the British on a site overlooking Algoa Bay. Little more than twenty years later, the British Go­ vernment, wrestling with a depression and the problem of absorbing soldiers re­ turning from the Napoleonic Wars, seized on the idea of settling people in the Cape; so it was that in 1820 some 4000 people landed in Algoa Bay and were guided inland to' their allocated farms. Gradually the City grew into the Colony's main commercial centre. In 1857 a group of local businessmen decided to try and form a local bank fi­ nanced by local capital. They could not and so John Paterson, the moving spirit behind the venture, sailed to London in July 1859 to attract overseas investors. Three years later the Cape Argus was able to report on 13 December 1862 ' ...... Mr. John Paterson's "Standard" is fairly hoisted. The Standard Bank starts with a capital of one million sterling and a clerk, cashier and ma­ nager will soon be here .... .' The diamond rush to Kimberley began in 1870, the Bank's equipment having to travel by oxwagon from Port Elizabeth which took a leisurely, if dusty, six weeks to arrive. The only mishap was in fording the Vaal River when the safe slid off the ferry but 'floated like a cork to the opposite shore'. Gold was first found at Barberton in the eastern Transvaal in 1884 and the Standard was quickly there.
    [Show full text]
  • Scapegoats of the Empire Handout
    Scapegoats of the Empire Author background: First published in 1907 in Australia: Its author, George Witton, wrote it after returning from three years in military jail in England, following his prosecution for the killing of prisoners during the Second Boer War of 1899-1902. Witton had served first in the Australian artillery, then joined the Victorian Imperial Bushmen as an NCO before being commissioned as officer in the Bushveldt Carbineers in 1901. Author motivation: The book presents Witton’s account of the events leading to his arrest, trial and imprisonment, as well as his experience in jail. Witton was one of three officers (along with Harry “Breaker” Morant and Peter Handcock) sentenced to death, following accusations that they had violated the rules of war by shooting Boer prisoners. Witton and his co-defendants claimed that British military commanders had issued orders not to take prisoners, and authorized harsh measures against Boer guerilla tactics. Morant and Handcock were executed in 1902; Witton’s sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. The book asserts Witton’s innocence on the charges against him. Book’s Context: The Second Boer War pitted the citizen-soldiers of the independent republics, Transvaal and the Orange Free State, against the forces of the British Empire. The early phases of the war featured pitched battles and sieges, as Boer forces equipped with modern rifles and artillery inflicted defeats on British troops who were using out-of-date tactics, and then cut off and besieged the cities of Ladysmith, Mafeking and Kimberley. Once British reinforcements began arriving from across the Empire, these sieges were lifted, and the tide of the war turned.
    [Show full text]
  • Some Australian Literary Myths from the Boer War
    Kunapipi Volume 18 Issue 2 Article 4 1996 'A Man Never Knows his Luck in South Africa': Some Australian Literary Myths from the Boer War Shirley Walker Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Walker, Shirley, 'A Man Never Knows his Luck in South Africa': Some Australian Literary Myths from the Boer War, Kunapipi, 18(2), 1996. Available at:https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol18/iss2/4 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] 'A Man Never Knows his Luck in South Africa': Some Australian Literary Myths from the Boer War Abstract One night late in 1901, in the Spelonken district to the North of Pietersburg, a certain Australian Lieutenant in the Bushveldt Carbineers lay with his men in ambush above the laager of Field-Cornet Tom Kelly, a notorious Boer irregular leader: The night was intenselv cold, but we lay there w1thm 50 yards of them until the first streak of dawn. During the n1ght a dog scented us and started to bark, a Boer got up and gave 11 a kick to quieten 1t, at which Morant remarked, 'A man never knows his luck m South Africa'.1 This journal article is available in Kunapipi: https://ro.uow.edu.au/kunapipi/vol18/iss2/4 :4 Man N~·ver Knows h1::. luck 111 South llfnca ' 1~ SHIRLEY WALKER 'A Man Never Knows his Luck in South Africa': Some Australian Literary Myths from the Boer War O ne night late in 1901, in the Spelonken district to the North of Pietersburg, a certain Australian Lieute nant in the Hushveldt Carbineers lay with his men in ambush above the laager of Field­ Cornet Tom Kelly, a notori ou s Boer irregular leader: The mght was mtensclv ~:old, but we lay there w1thm 50 yards of them unhl the first s treak of dawn.
    [Show full text]
  • What Does the Saga Mean For
    165 VICTORIAN BAR NEWS BAR VICTORIAN ISSUE 165 WINTER 2019 2019 Dr Katie Pro bono VICTORIAN Victorian Greenaway awards Bar Dinner on keeping BAR secrets NEWS WHAT DOES THE BARRISTER X WINTER 2019 SAGA MEAN FOR US? 165 Plus: Where do we come from? The diverse backgrounds of our barristers. ISSUE 165 WINTER 2019 MONASH VICTORIAN LAW BAR NEWS News and Views Editorial 40 What does the ‘Barrister X’ saga Confronting the 5 mean for us? challenges before us Gain a NATALIE HICKEY WITH MATT COLLINS THE EDITORS 42 The mental health benefits Letters to the editors 7 and burdens of keeping Cultural intelligence at the Bar 8 other people’s secrets competitive ARUSHAN PILLAY AND RICHARD INGLEBY NATALIE HICKEY President’s report 10 44 A barrister’s obligations to keep MATT COLLINS 34 client information confidential CEO Report 12 ROISIN ANNESLEY, CHAIR ETHICS COMMITTEE KATHERINE LORENZ 46 Where we come from edge for your COLIN GOLVAN QC Around town 52 2019 Pro Bono Awards 14 Delusions of certitude: An interview VBN with Dr James Raymond JUSTIN WHEELAHAN 2019 Victorian Bar Dinner 18 54 Disruption and innovation in the VBN future in law. family law space Peter O’Callaghan QC 24 TALYA FAIGENBAUM & ANNETTE CHARAK Gallery extension Bar Lore SIOBHAN RYAN 56 The more things change, the more The Gallery’s new space— 25 they stay the same JACK RUSH Enrol now in 3 new tech subjects: The Hartog Berkeley QC Room 46 THE HON SUSAN KIEFEL AC, CHIEF JUSTICE Back of the Lift 60 Silence all stand Testing their mettle: 30 Legal Tech Studio Prospective arbitration 67 Vale
    [Show full text]