AustLit

The author of the autobiographical work Scapegoats of the Empire (1907), George R. Witton was one of the Bushveldt Carbineers who was imprisoned with Breaker Morant (q.v.) during the Boer War (1899-1902). Although Witton was court-martialled for his involvment with the unlawful killing of Boer prisoners, his sentence was commuted to life in prison of which he served two years.

Witton's book 'deals with the author's army life from the outbreak of the war until his release from prison in England and return to Australia in 1904, and includes an account of the events that culminated in the court-martial and execution by the British Army of Lieutenants Peter Joseph Handcock and Harry Harbord Morant.'

(Source: 'War Literature' The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature. William H. Wilde, Joy Hooton, and Barry Andrews. Oxford University Press 1994.)