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Harry Harbord “Breaker” Morant |
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Adventurer and minor poet, born 1865 in Bridgwater, Somerset, England. He arrived in North Queensland in 1883, and the following year married Daisy May O'Dwyer, later Daisy Bates. About this time he changed his name, and ranged about Queensland and New South Wales earning a living by his undoubted skills as a rider and horse-breaker. Under his pseudonym he contributed ballads and bush verse to the Sydney magazine The Bulletin from 1891, writing some 60 poems. In 1899 he enlisted in the Australian contingent sailing for the Boer Wars. In South Africa, after the murder and mutilation by the Boers of a close friend, Morant and a companion were court martialled and executed by a firing squad for their retaliation against the surrendering Boers. |