Includes bibliographical references.

Making the man -- Tenterfield bound -- Present arms -- Print or be damned -- An odd skirmish -- To the Veldt -- The trek -- The siege of Elands River -- Under attack -- Rhenoster kop flop -- Bobbing and weaving -- Back and soon gone -- Enter the Breaker -- The breakdown -- Thrown into the deep end -- False hope -- Regaining his footing... then slipping -- Flowers and floundering funds -- Back on track -- Militarism in disguise -- The rot spreads -- Behind bars -- End to the body blows -- The other victim.

Opinion is still sharply divided on whether Breaker Morant and his Australian co-defendants were criminals who got what they deserved, or scapegoats used by the British Empire. Major Thomas, the bush lawyer drafted in at the last minute to defend them, is invariably depicted as either a hero or an incompetent fool. Now, for the first time, Greg Growden attempts to unravel the truth about the lawyer and soldier who returned from South Africa a broken man. Before the Boer War, Major Thomas had been a pillar of his community. He was a published poet, newspaper proprietor, lawyer and decorated soldier, but defending Breaker Morant became the defining episode of his life. The former 'King of Tenterfield' endured a stunning fall from grace, slipping into bankruptcy and imprisonment. Thomas ended his days as an eccentric recluse, his life ruined by the ignominy and frustration of finding himself on the wrong side of history. For more than a century he has been a footnote in diverging historical arguments. A proper hearing for Major Thomas is long overdue.