Harry "The Breaker" Harbord Morant (9 December 1864 – 27 February 1902) was an Anglo-Australian drover, horseman, poet, soldier and convicted war criminal whose skill with horses earned him the nickname "The Breaker". The bulk of his published work appeared in The Bulletin magazine.
During service in the Second Boer War, Morant allegedly participated in the summary execution of nine Boer (Afrikaner) prisoners. His actions led to his controversial court-martial and execution by firing squad. He was found not guilty of a separate charge of killing a German missionary, Daniel Heese, who had been a witness to the shootings.
In the century since his death, Morant has become a folk hero to some in Australia. His story has been the subject of several books, a stage play, and a major Australian feature film.
One of my all time favorite movies.
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Good catch re: being English.
The "Aussies" did not execute him. While Australia had federated as a single nation in 1901, and the Australian Army had been established by the date of Lieutenant Morant's execution, he, along with Handcock and Witten were still in the British Army. Their Court Martial was therefore carried out by the British Army, and the Australian Army and government had no influence on the case at all.
Australian independence was a gradual affair - it wasn't until 1942 that Australia took primary responsibility for its own defence policy - prior to that London still had at least a technical power of veto - and even into the 1970s, there were still remnants of that (Australian ships began the Vietnam War sailing under the British White Ensign and only changed to avoid the risk of Britain as a non-combatant nation being attacked, and all through Vietnam Australian decorations had to be approved in London - and in the 1950s when General Sir Thomas Blamey of the Australian Army was promoted to Field Marshall, he found himself suddenly holding the rank in the British Army as well).
During World War I, the Australian government successfully took the stance that the British Army could not try Australian soldiers at Court Martial partly because the fact that they had been powerless in the Morant case.