There are no Boer War survivors. Old age has achieved what the enemy could not. These men now live on through the stories, letters and diaries uncovered by the Great Search and reproduced here. Read how South Africa had two tough things going for them, the terrain and the flint-hard farmers, known as Boers.

MAJOR THOMAS DEFENDED BREAKER MORANT

NAME: James Thomas

DATE: 1901

UNIT: New South Wales Bushmen

LOCATION: Pretoria, South Africa

Major James Francis Thomas earned world fame at the South African War in 1902 for the defence of Harry "The Breaker" Morant, but long before that he was known, in Tenterfield, for his sense of justice and fair play