Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare and emotive autograph of George Witton, late Lieutenant, Bushveldt Carbineers, who was originally sentenced to death alongside his comrades Harry “Breaker” Morant and Peter Handcock, a sentence subsequently commuted by Kitchener: following widespread protests, he was released from prison in 1904, returned to Australia and published Scapegoats of the Empire
A single page from an autograph album, with ink inscription, ‘Be noble in every thought and every deed. Longfellow. George R. Witton, June 28 1907’, with additional quote by Southey below, initialled by another, Sydney, 22 December 1909, and by Shakespeare, from Albert Blakey, dated 31 May 1910, on reverse, 190cm. by 150cm., excellent condition £400-500

Lieutenant George Ramsdale Witton (1874-1942) joined the Bushveldt Carbineers in the Northern Transvaal, having served earlier in the Victorian Imperial Bushmen.

Alongside his fellow officers Lieutenants “Breaker” Morant and Peter Handcock, he was convicted by courts-martial of the murder of eight surrendered Boers in August 1901 and sentenced to death by Lord Kitchener. On the morning of the executions, 27 February 1902, Witton's sentence was commuted to penal servitude for life and he was transported to England. He was incarcerated in Portland Convict Prison to a storm of protest from Australian and British supporters who were convinced that he, Morant and Handcock had suffered a grave miscarriage of justice. He was eventually released in August 1904, not least owing to a decisive intervention by Winston Churchill in the House of Commons, and he returned to Australia that November where he set about writing Scapegoats of the Empire, his version of the story of “Breaker” Morant, the Bushveldt Carbineers and the trials.

Scapegoats of the Empire was published in 1907. The date of the autograph and the publication are surely connected as the book created great controversy. The Longfellow quote captures Witton's sentiments about his own involvement in the tragic events that unfurled on the bushveldt. As a footnote, only a handful of first editions of Scapegoats of the Empire have survived owing to a mysterious fire at the publisher's warehouse that year which sparked conspiracy theories that the authorities had arranged its destruction.

This is the only recorded signature of George Witton besides a 1929 letter to J. F. Thomas, the officer who defended him, “Breaker” Morant and Peter Handcock at the trials in South Africa, held by the Mitchell Library in Australia.