Last week the UK government announced that all 306 British World War One soldiers executed for desertion or cowardice are to be pardoned, saying the decision was taken on moral grounds. Charles Sturt University (CSU) historian Dr Rob McLachlan, an adjunct senior lecturer in the School of Social Sciences and Liberal Studies, says it was the court martial and execution of Australian soldiers “Breaker” Morant and Peter Handcock from Bathurst during the earlier Boer War that prevented Australian soldiers suffering the same fate as their British counterparts. He says the public outcry over the deaths of Morant and Handcock ensured Australian soldiers would never again face a British court martial. “Also, the Australian Infantry Force (AIF) was a fully volunteer force, and was not the sort of military that would take easily to this extreme form of discipline. However, I see nothing in the human condition to say it won't happen again.”