Major James Francis Thomas
The Unsung Hero of Australian Military Law
Lieutenant Thomas of the Tenterfield Mounted Infantry.
As the defence lawyer for Morant, Handcock and Whitton during the Boer War, the story of Major Thomas is often overshadowed by events of the Courts Marshall. As a prominent figure in the small rural town of Tenterfield, Thomas raised a contingent of mounted troops for service in South Africa and saw action on many battlefields, including The Siege of Elands River. The result of his service and the outcome of the Morant trial left Thomas a broken man, largely shunned by the community who once lauded him.