Morant, Harry (1865-1902), was an English immigrant to Australia. A poet, horse breaker, soldier, and adventurer, he wrote bush ballads under the pen name of The Breaker.
Henry Harbord Morant was born in Devon, England, probably on Dec. 9, 1865. He arrived in Australia in the 1880’s. In the late 1890’s, he enlisted in an Australian rifle company that fought in the Anglo-Boer War of 1899-1902 in South Africa. The British Army charged Morant and three other officers with murdering eight Boers. During the court martial, Morant and his fellow prisoners were released to fight off an attack by the Boers. The trial then resumed. Morant was sentenced to death. The night before his execution, he wrote a poem titled Butchered to Make a Dutchman’s Holiday. He refused a blindfold and told the firing squad, “Shoot straight and don’t make a mess of it.” Morant was executed on Feb. 27, 1902. The film Breaker Morant (1980) by the Australian director Bruce Beresford tells his story.
