public support, to obtain a posthumous pardon or even a new trial. According to South African historian Charles Leach, "In the opinion of many South Africans, particularly descendants of victims as well as other involved persons in the far Northern Transvaal, justice was only partially achieved by the trial and the resultant sentences. The feeling still prevails that not all the guilty parties were dealt with – the notorious Captain Taylor being the most obvious one of all." Early life (1864–1882) Inquiries made during 1902 by the newspapers The Northern Miner and The Bulletin identified Harry Harbord Morant as 'Edwin Henry Murrant', who was born at Bridgwater, Somerset, England, in December 1864, the son of Edwin Murrant (1836–1864) and Catherine (née Riely) Murrant (1833–1899). Edwin and Catherine were master and matron of the Union Workhouse at Bridgwater. Morant's father died in August 1864, four months before the birth of his son. His mother continued her employment as matron until her retirement in 1882. She died in July 1899 while her son was in Renmark, South Australia, just six months before he embarked for military service in South Africa. Despite his humble origins, Morant could easily pass for a member of the British upper class and created a number of romantic legends about his past, which suggest that he saw himself as a Byronic hero. He was often described as "well-educated". Morant claimed to have been born in 1865 at Bideford, Devon, England, and to be the son of Admiral Sir George Digby Morant of the Royal Navy, a claim repeated as fact by later writers, although the Admiral denied it. Australia (1883–1899) According to The Northern Miner and The Bulletin, Morant emigrated to Australia in 1883 and arrived aboard the SS Waroonga at Townsville, Queensland, in June. At the time, there was no difference in legal status, in either country, between people born in the UK and British subjects born overseas – a category that included a vast majority of people born in Australia. (This did not change until the Australian nationality law of 1948.) Nevertheless, Morant did not regard himself as Australian. His former defence counsel, Major James Francis Thomas, later "reacted strongly" whenever his former client was described as such. In a letter to The Sydney Morning Herald on 16 June 1923, Major Thomas wrote, "Morant was not an Australian, he was an Englishman, who came to this