page_title: Court-martial of Breaker Morant
section_title: Conviction and sentencing
hierarchical_section_title: Court-martial of Breaker Morant / Conviction and sentencing
caption_attribution_description: Afrikaans: Majoor James Francis Thomas (1861-1946), staan ​​agter die graf van die gefusileerde Breaker Morant en Peter Handcock in die kerkhof wat tans deur die Heldeakker omvat word. Die graf is naby die amptelike Gemenebes-rusplaas, vir gesneuweldes van Brittanje, Ierland, Australië, Kanada, Suid-Afrika en Nieu-Seeland. English: Major James Francis Thomas (1861-1946), standing behind the grave of Breaker Morant and Peter Handcock in a civilian section of Pretoria's Church Street cemetery, 50m from the official Commonwealth military plot containing the remains of fallen soldiers from Britain, Ireland, Australia, Canada, South Africa and New Zealand.&#91;1&#93; ↑ O'Loughlin, Ed&#32;(3 July 1998),&#32;“Facelift for 'Breaker' Morant's grave”, in&#32;Mail &amp; Guardian[1], Johannesburg Inscription on headstone: To the memory of P. HANDCOCK and HENRY H. MORANT 27th Feb 1902 "He that loseth his life shall find it" Inscription on modern footstone: In Memoriam HARRY "THE BREAKER" MORANT and PETER HANDCOCK Executed 100 years ago in Pretoria 27th FEB 1902 "A MAN'S FOES WILL BE THOSE OF HIS OWN HOUSEHOLD" ST MATTHEW CHAPTER 10 VERSE 36
context_page_description: The 1902 court-martial of Breaker Morant was a war crimes prosecution that brought to trial six officers – Lieutenants Harry "Breaker" Morant, Peter Handcock, George Witton, Henry Picton, Captain Alfred Taylor and Major Robert Lenehan – of the Bushveldt Carbineers, an irregular regiment of mounted rifles during the Boer War.
  The charges, which were in part prompted by a "letter of complaint", which was written by BVC Trooper Robert Mitchell Cochrane and signed by James Christie and 14 other members of the BVC, were that Lieutenant Morant had incited the co-accused to murder some 20 people, including the wounded POW Floris Visser, a group of four Boer prisoners of war and four Dutch schoolteachers, Boer civilian adults and children, and a Lutheran missionary named Rev. Daniel Heese. Morant and Handcock were acquitted of killing Heese, but were sentenced to death on the other two charges and executed within 18 hours of sentencing. Their death warrants were personally signed by Lord Kitchener.
  It was not until 1907 that news of the trial and executions were made public in Australia when Witton published Scapegoats of the Empire.
context_section_description: Morant and Handcock were sentenced to death and executed by firing squad on the morning of 27 February; less than 18 hours after the verdict. Witton had also been sentenced to death, but this was commuted to life in prison by Kitchener (he was released by the British House of Commons on 11 August 1904 and died in 1942). Picton was cashiered; and Lenehan was reprimanded and discharged. All charges against the British intelligence officer Captain Taylor (died 1941) were dismissed.
caption: Major Thomas standing over the joint grave of Morant and Handcock (1902).
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