Pardons for Morant, Handcock and Witton

rdf:langString Pardons for Morant, Handcock and Witton

rdf:langString Pardons for Morant, Handcock and Witton, three Australian soldiers, were sought from their convictions for war crimes - the murder of several Boer prisoners-of-war - during the Second Boer War. Following four courts martial in early 1902, Lieutenants Peter Joseph Handcock and Harry "Breaker" Morant, of the Bushveldt Carbineers (BVC) of the British Army, were executed by a firing squad of Cameron Highlanders, in Pretoria, South Africa, on 27 February 1902, 18 hours after they had been sentenced. Despite the court recommending mercy in both cases, Lord Kitchener confirmed their death sentences. Kitchener personally signed their death warrants. Following the court also recommending mercy in his case, the sentence of a third brother officer, Lieutenant George Ramsdale Witton, was commuted to life imprisonment by Lord Kitchener. Following public pressure, Witton was released on 11 August 1904, but never pardoned. An Australian military lawyer, Commander James William Unkles of the Royal Australian Naval Reserve, sent petitions for pardons for all three men to both Queen Elizabeth II and to the Petitions Committee of the Australian House of Representatives in 2009 but both governments declined them on the basis of insufficient evidence.