Warwick O’Neill, Military Historian
During World War 1, military court proceedings against Australian troops were kept out of British hands. Only Australian officers could court martial Australian soldiers, much to the disgust of senior British soldiers, particularly Old Douggie Haig. It’s widely believed that the reason behind this was the trial and execution by an English Court Martial of Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant and Peter Hancock.
And while this may be at least partially correct, there was another scandal in 1901 involving British military justice against Australian troops. It was known as the Wilmansrust Affair and eventually it would even get the newly minted Australian Prime Minister, Edmond Barton, involved.
So for those who aren’t around this whole Boer War thing, more formally known as the Second South African War, here’s the basic summary of what was going on.
In the early 1800’s, as a spoil of war after the Napoleonic wars, England was granted an area on the southern part of the African continent, which with great imagination was named South Africa. The fact that it was inhabited by primarily Dutch farmers, known as Boers, didn’t rate highly in the discussions. Let along the native tribes who also called the area home.
So throughout the first half of the 19th Century English influence in the region began to spread with the Anglicisation, the Pommyifying, of much of the Southern most areas. It wasn’t of particularly great interest in the great scheme of the British Empire. India was where it was all happening, with spices and riches and all that. South Africa was pretty much a place which had a couple of convenient ports for resupplying ships moving throughout the rest of the Empire.
That all changed in the 1860s. Why? Wealth and riches of course. There was gold in them thar hills. And not just gold, but diamonds as well. All of a sudden England was very interested. More English people poured into the region in search of a quick bob or two. Tensions rose between the Uitlanders, as the Boers called them, and the Dutch.
Cecil Rhodes, he of the ‘Rhodes Scholarship’ which was named in his honour, was at the time the Boss of the British South Africa company. By 1895 he was in a position to ‘influence’ the region. He did so my launching a raid into the Transvaal under the command of Leander Starr Jameson. The idea was that the Uitlanders in the area would rise up and overthrow Dutch rule, thereby deposing Paul Kruger, the President of the South African Republic and giving the Old Dart complete control and access to all the shiny goodies.
But, the raid failed and understandably Mr Kruger was not happy. The German Kaiser sided with Kruger and began sending arms to assist him in defending the Transvaal, much to England’s disgust. It would be another 20 years before the full impact of this action came to fruition. But at the time it empowered Kruger to deny rights, such as voting, to anyone of British heritage.
Essentially this gave England the excuse it needed to send a proper military expedition to take control of the gold and diamonds of the area, under the auspices of protecting British subjects. And so in 1899 the Boer War kicked off, and as would be the norm for the next half century, when the Poms went to war, Australians willingly jumped into the fray.
At the time, the nation of Australia was still a couple of years away, so the Australian contribution consisted of independent forces raised from each of the six colonies.
One such force was the 5th Victorian Mounted Rifles. The 5th VMR embarked for South Africa in mid-February 1901 and arrived in late March. They were assigned to the Pretoria region up in the Northern part of South Africa and formed part of an English Column under the Command of the English Major-General, Sir Stuart Brownlow Beatson, K.C.B., K.C.S.I., K.C.V.O, A.B.C, R.S.V.P, L.O.L. … oh sorry got carried away there.
It was while under the Command of Beatson that things quickly went south for the Vics. In organising his column, Beatson split the 5th VMA into two wings. The left wing, consisting of E, F, G and H companies, was put under the command of Major Morris of the Royal Field Artillery. Morris had only recently arrived in South Africa after a long period of fighting in India.
The Boer conducted war a bit differently to the Indians. Small local units under their own commanders operating under a looser form of control to a traditional army. The term which has become synonymous with small, hard hitting units in armies across the world throughout the 20th Century had its origin with the Boers. They called these units Commandos, and Morris’ inexperience in dealing with the Commandos would have dire consequences, particularly for the Victorians under his command.
Morris was ordered to take his 350 troops to make a sweep to the South of Pretoria. I’ll let Hector McDonald describe the lead up to the affair in the letter he sent to his mother which was reprinted in the Numuraka Leader.
“We were with General Beatson’s column, and after we had been out about a fortnight he sent some of us with two pom-poms to form a flying column. We had been out about three days when we began to see Boers against the skyline, just out of rifle range. As we were not very strong (about 300) we knew we were in for a warm time: however we went alright until the fourth night, and then crash came. We were camped at a place called Wilderman’s Rest, and had just got orders that we were to get up at 2 o’clock the next morning, and surprise the Boers, so we were all sitting round the fire cooking breakfast, as we would have no time in the morning, when, without any warning, crack went about 250 rifles at 30 yards range.”
It was classic Boer tactics. Track their enemy but avoid a fight until the ground and conditions were favourable to them. And then hit hard.
Their opening volley, fired at around quarter to eight at night, caused the horses of H Company to stampede through the camp. The attackers were dressed in captured uniforms with the brims of their hats turned up at the side, so in the darkness they were nearly impossible to distinguish from the Australians. Total confusion reigned.
Boer troops rushed through the camp firing as fast they could, killing men still struggling to emerge from their tents or retrieve their weapons from where they had been grouped together.
Back to Hector McDonald
“As soon as we realised what it meant we made for our rifles, but only about 50 could get them; I never got mine. Our men tried to keep them back, but it was no good, they were in the middle of the camp ten minutes after they started. To give you an idea of their fire, I might say they shot 38 of our horses in that first volley; it is a good thing the horses were there, or we would all have been shot. There were some of our fellows in bed who were shot where they lay – they never moved. And there were three others sitting by the fire with me, who all got wounded. I don’t know how I got out of it.
The after affects were terrible: I can’t describe the scene. Everywhere we looked there were dead and dying; the poor fellows who were wounded were screaming and groaning all night. After the Boers left the camp we went searching for the wounded in extended order and every few yards we went we would find some poor fellow dead or wounded.”
It was about this time the Boers returned, but there was little to no fighting. They ordered the survivors to surrender, which having little choice, they did. But a Boer Commando has little in the way of facilities for such a large group of prisoners and after about two hours they departed the scene, taking the two pom-poms, all the ammunition and whatever they managed to loot from the dead.
A relief party from the right wing arrived the next morning to find a scene reminiscent of a slaughter house, not a battlefield, according to Lance Corporal Arthur Ruddle.
“We dug one big hole about six feet deep and twenty feet long, as we had eighteen killed in all, and we buried them all in the one hole, put stones on top and a fence around”
Victorian casualties were heavy. Regimental Surgeon Herbert Palmer of Ballarat was killed along with 18 NCOs and men. Five officers and 36 NCOs and men were wounded.
The events of that night would’ve been enough on their own to leave a dark stain on the psyches of those involved, but it would be the events following the disaster which would bring the event to the attention of the wider population in Australia.
It all began with General Beatson’s reaction upon hearing news of the attack. Up to that point he had been full of praise for the Australians, impressed with their general abilities as soldiers. But that opinion changed after Wilmansrust. Later that week during a march with the column he was asked by a colleague what he thought of the 5th VMR. He replied angrily.
“I tell you what I think. The Australians are a damned fat, round shouldered, useless crowd of wasters. In my opinion they are a lot of white-livered curs . You can add dogs too.”
Not particularly complimentary. He obviously felt that the debacle at Wilmansrust was due to a lack of courage and fighting spirit in the Colonials. And he wasn’t backwards in letting the Victorians know of his feelings. He came across a group slaughtering a pig for food. He’s alleged to have said:
“Yes, that’s about what you are good for. When the Dutchmen came the other night, you didn’t fix bayonets and charge them, but you go for something that can’t hit back”.
What’s that book called? “How to make friends and influence people.” Maybe if it had been around back then, he may have tempered his remarks. But probably not.
Anyway, the animosity he felt towards the Victorians was returned with interest.
A week later, the Column returned to camp at Middleberg where, in the manner of soldiers, stories were told, opinions proffered and a general feeling of discontent circulated. On 7 July, the Victorians were out on another operation.
Trooper James Steele, sitting with his mates Arthur Richards and Herbert Parry after the order had been issued, said “It will be better for the men to be shot than to go out with a man who called them white-livered curs”.
Nothing unusual really for soldiers who felt their honour had been insulted. Unfortunately for the three Troopers, Steele’s comment and his companions agreement was overheard by an English officer. Feeling that the comment was a refusal to carry out orders, the Officer ordered the arrest of the Australians.
They were given a summary court-martial, found guilty and sentenced to death. All military death sentences at the time needed to be endorsed by the Supreme Commander in the field, on this occasion Lord Kitchener of Khartoum. On this occasion Kitchener commuted the death sentence to ten years imprisonment for Steele and one year each for the others. Morant and Hancock weren’t so lucky a year later when Kitchener confirmed their death sentences.
A Court of Enquiry was established to investigate the events at Wilmansrust. After interviewing those who were there two main issues became apparent, the blame for neither issue could or would be laid on the Victorians.
First, it became apparent that the picquets were placed too far apart. They had been personally positioned by Major Morris, based upon how he had previously set picquets in India. That was fine for combating the larger forces the Indians usually mustered, but for the Boer Commandoes he might as well have brushed off the welcome mat. The gaps between the picquets was so wide, the Boers simply slipped through them unnoticed.
The second issue was that of the King’s Regulations and how it pertained to the stacking of rifles. Now, when I was young lad in the Army, it was drilled into us in no uncertain terms that, when in the field your rifle should never be more than an arm’s length away. This would seem to be common sense.
But no, in King’s Regulations circa 1901, it was laid down that rifles are to be stacked away from the tents in which the soldiers are sleeping. I wish I could give you some inspired insight into why this would be a requirement, but for the life of me I can’t think of a single valid reason for doing so. Regardless, that was the way they did it. The obvious result of this was that when the Boer charged into the camp, the soldiers didn’t have any rifles close at hand with which to return fire.
For a bit of an image of how all this might have looked, check out the scene in the movie Breaker Morant, starring Edward Woodward and Brian Brown, where the Boers launch an attack against the garrison in which Morant is being held. The early stages of that scene I think must’ve been close to what Wilmansrust had been, particularly in regards to the stacking of rifles.
Photo courtesy National Register of War Memorials.
Anyway, for the positioning of the picquets Major Morris was officially censured and the Victorians could hardly be blamed for following King’s Regs.
During the inquiry another British officer General Sir Bindon Blood (no, no that’s actually his names), remarked on the “Chicken-hearted behaviour of the officers and men generally of the Victorian Mounted Rifles on this occasion. We must remember that they were all a lot of recruits together, and that their behaviour was only what was to be expected in the circumstances“.
This was more than Major William McKnight, commander of the 5th VMR left wing could stand. Since it had been established that the fault for the incident lay with Major Morris, the slurs by Beatson and Blood were gross insults. Beatson offered a belated apology, which McKnight refused to accept. After all, there were three Australians at that point in goal merely for voicing their disgust at Beatson’s comments.
News of the whole affair inevitably made its way back to Australia, particularly Melbourne and criticism of Beatson and the handling of the affair circulated widely. A petition was sent to King Edward VII politely requesting the release of Steele, Richards and Parry. Personal representations were made by prominent Australians living in London and by Prime Minister Edmund Barton.
Eventually the pleading paid off and in October 1901 the three men were released and returned to Australia via South Africa and the whole affair more or less faded into nothing and was largely forgotten. Indeed upon their departure from South Africa in March 1902, Lord Kitchener telegrammed the 5th VMR Officer stating “Please Convey to your Australians my warm appreciation of their gallant and arduous service in this country. In the name of the Army in South Africa, I wish them good luck and God speed.”
But it wasn’t totally forgotten. Three young Australians had come close to being executed merely for speaking their minds in a private conversation. The fact that the British authorities acted so swiftly and excessively under the circumstances, without any consultation with Australia, didn’t sit well with many Australians. The Country was becoming aware of its own individual character, its egalitarian ideals and a sense of a fair go. This flew in the face of all those things.
If the Morant and Hancock executions hadn’t occurred within a year of this affair, it may well have remained as nothing more than an uncomfortable feeling in the general public. But in combination, and the fact that the second incident did lead to the deaths of two Australian soldiers (even though Morant was English), galvanised Australian authorities into enshrining in the Australian Defence Act, that Australian soldiers could only be court martialled by Australian officers.
Given that World War 1 was just around the corner and once again Australian troops would form a small part of the larger British Army, this decision to include that clause in the Defence Act was quite fortunate. We all know the reputation Australian troops acquired for relaxed discipline and general shenanigans, God Bless ‘em one and all. No doubt Haig would dearly have loved to be able to shoot a few of them in an attempt to bring the rest into line. There can be little doubt that a number of Australian lives were saved from the vagaries of British Military justice as a direct result of Wilmansrust Affair and Morant and Hancock.
At least something good came from it.
Other military items by the author, Warwick O’Neill, can be found at: https://www.australianmilitaryhistorypodcast.com/
You can read more about the author, Warwick O’Neill, here.
