Alfred Taylor (British Army officer)

Captain Alfred James "'Bulala" Taylor (14 November 1861 – 24 October 1941) was an Anglo-Irish military officer who was active in Africa during the Scramble for Africa and the Second Boer War. He is best known as a defendant in one of the first war crimes prosecutions in British military history. Born into a middle-class Protestant family in Dublin, Ireland, Taylor jumped ship in Cape Town in 1886 and served in the British South Africa Police of the British South Africa Company (BSAC). He played a major role in the colonisation of modern-day Zimbabwe by the BSAC. During two subsequent uprisings by the Northern Ndebele people against Company rule in Rhodesia, Taylor was dubbed by the Ndebele "Bulala" ("He Who Kills") and "Bamba" ("He Who Takes").

Taylor is most infamous, however, for his actions during the Second Boer War. While serving as a captain in the War Office's Intelligence Department, Taylor was handpicked by Lord Kitchener as liaison to the Bushveldt Carbineers (BVC) at Fort Edward in the Northern Transvaal. South African historian C. A. R. Schulenburg has described "The Irishman Taylor" as "a notorious sadist", who was "ruthless" toward white and black South Africans alike.^[1] In October 1901, a letter accusing Taylor and other officers of crimes against the laws and customs of war was signed by 15 enlisted members of the BVC and mailed to the officer commanding at Pietersburg. In response, Taylor was arrested by British military police and put on trial at Pietersburg.

In the subsequent trial, Taylor was accused of ordering the murders of six unarmed Afrikaner men and boys at Valdezia on 2 July 1901 and the theft of their money and livestock. He was also charged with the murder of an unarmed Black man, who had refused to reveal the hiding place of his Boer employer. Australian Army officer J. F. Thomas, Taylor's defence attorney, managed to secure an acquittal on both charges. Taylor voluntarily resigned from military service, returned to Southern Rhodesia, and died at Bulawayo on 24 October 1941. In the award-winning Australian New Wave film Breaker Morant, Taylor is portrayed onscreen by John Waters.