The Boer War - Newspaper Posters 1902: Two (2) fragile but… - Australian & Colonial History - Leski Auctions Pty. Ltd.

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The Boer War - Newspaper Posters 1902: Two (2) fragile but largely intact 'The Age' [Melbourne] posters, each 67 x 49 cm and held within a metal frame. The first poster, dated April 1st 1902 features a two-line heading 'Court-Martialled Australians / Account of the Trial.' being a reference to the infamous and alarming court martials and executions of Harry 'Breaker' Morant and Peter Handcock and the trials of several of their companions in the Bushveldt Carbineers. The second poster, dated April 21st 1902, provides headlines indicating that despite 'Boer Peace Moves' there was 'No Suspension of Fight.' Remarkable survivors of the newspaper coverage, the only media source for information regarding the involvement of Australian soldiers in this foreign war. We are not aware of any other examples of these two posters. Lieutenant Morant was arrested and court-martialed for 'war crimes', one of the first such prosecutions in British military history. According to his military prosecutors, Morant retaliated for the death in combat of his commanding officer with a series of revenge killings against both Boer POWs and civilian residents of the Northern Transvaal. He stood accused of the summary execution of Floris Visser, a wounded prisoner of war and the slaying of four Afrikaners and four Dutch school teachers who had been taken prisoner at the Elim Hospital. Morant was found guilty and sentenced to death. Lieutenants Morant and Peter Handcock were then court-martialed for the murder of the Rev. Carl August Daniel Heese, a South African-born Minister of the Berlin Missionary Society. Rev. Heese had spiritually counseled the Dutch and Afrikaner victims at Elim Hospital, indignantly vowed to inform Morant's commanding officer, and had been shot to death the same afternoon. Morant and Handcock were acquitted of the Heese murder, but their sentences for murdering Floris Visser and the eight victims at Elim Hospital were carried out by a firing squad drawn from the Cameron Highlanders on 27 February 1902. Shortly before 06:00 hours, Morant and Handcock were led out of the fort at Pretoria to be executed. Both men refused to be blindfolded; Morant gave his cigarette case to the squad leader, and his last words were reported as: 'Shoot straight, you bastards! Don't make a mess of it!' The exact sequence and nature of the events leading up to Morant's arrest and trial are still disputed, and accounts vary considerably. While it seems clear that some members of the Bvc were responsible for shooting Boer POWs and civilian non-combatants, the precise circumstances of these killings and the identities of those responsible will probably never be known for certain. Due to British military censorship, reports of the trial and execution did not begin to appear in Australia until the end of March 1902. The Australian government and Lieutenant Handcock's wife, who lived in Bathurst with their three children, only learned of Handcock and Morant's deaths from the Australian newspapers weeks after their executions. The Australian government demanded an explanation from Kitchener who, on 5 April 1902, sent a telegram to the Australian Governor-General, which was published in its entirety in the Australian press. It reads as follows: In reply to your telegram, Morant, Handcock and Witton were charged with twenty separate murders, including one of a German missionary who had witnessed other murders. Twelve of these murders were proved. From the evidence it appears that Morant was the originator of these crimes which Handcock carried out in cold-blooded manner. The murders were committed in the wildest parts of the Transvaal, known as Spelonken, about eighty miles north of Pretoria, on four separate dates namely July 2 August 11, August 23, and September 7. In one case, where eight Boer prisoners were murdered, it was alleged to have been done in a spirit of revenge for the ill treatment of one of their officers, Captain Hunt, who was killed in action. No

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