Snapshot of the past

A photograph of George Ramsdale Witton who links the Boer War, Harry “Breaker” Morant and Longwarry.

Much has been written and a film made about Harry “Breaker” Morant, his trial and execution by the British for the murder of prisoners during the Boer War.

However, what might not be as well known is the connection of this incident with Longwarry. Along with Peter Handcock, a railway worker from Bathurst, and George Witton, Morant was arrested and convicted of murdering six prisoners of war and three captured civilians in two separate incidents during the Boer War.

Their defence at the time, whilst not denying the deaths of the men they were charged with killing, was that they were just following orders from a more senior officer.

All three were sentenced to be executed and the sentence carried out on Morant and Handcock. Witton’s execution was commuted to life imprisonment by Lord Kitchener, after various representations were made on his behalf, that he was the junior and inexperienced officer of the three.

In 1902, Witton’s brother Ernest started a petition and enlisted the help of the newly formed Australian Government to have his imprisonment lifted. He was successful.

Witton was released from prison but never pardoned, the guilty verdict remaining with him for the rest of his life.

He returned to Australia in 1904, not long after his father’s death, and settled on his own farm in Queensland.

He always believed that an injustice was done to him and reportedly remained somewhat of a bitter man. His memoirs in the book “Scapegoats of the Empire” make that clear.

Witton died in 1942 and is buried in Brisbane’s Lutwyche Cemetery.

So, what is the connection with Longwarry? Witton was born in Warrnambool in 1874 to John and Rebecca Witton. His family were small acreage farmers in the district.

By 1886, the family had moved to Longwarry as a Lands Department town survey shows the family had title to a residential block.

Local historians will know the name Witton from the brickworks established in Longwarry

in the early 1880s by Edwin Witton, brother of John. It is fair to assume the family had moved from the Warrnambool district to be a part of the brickworks in Longwarry.

His father John Witton died in 1904 and is buried in the Drouin Cemetery.

World War I military enlistment records show his younger brother Sydney was born in Longwarry in 1884 when George was just 10-years-old.

So, it would seem, that what was a tragic saga in military history had, in part, more than a passing association with the history of Longwarry.