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.
According to South African historian Arthur Davey, Taylor was so feared among the Native population of Rhodesia that he received two nicknames in the Ndebele language: "Bulala" ("He Who Kills") and "Bamba" ("He Who Takes").
Taylor was part of a patrol which arrived at the Perdeplaas Farm (now Zwarthoek), near the peak of the Soutpansberg Range, to transport the wife and children of Zoutpansberg Commando member Coenraad Jacobus van den Berg to the concentration camp at Pietersburg.
[23] Even though Trichardt was "reeling from the annual effects of malaria", British and Imperial forces sacked the town and arrested an estimated 90 male residents suspected of links to the Zoutpansberg Commando.
After walking only a few paces from the house, Burgher van den Berg was summarily shot by an ad hoc firing squad and buried in a shallow grave.
[25] According to the deposition of Australian Bushveldt Carbineers Trooper Robert Mitchell Cochrane, the cattle herds from Perdeplaas Farm were stolen by Captain Taylor.
They were secretly driven across the Rhodesian border, and sold in Bulawayo,[26] where Boer Commando attacks against the southern railway lines had more than doubled the price of food.
According to local resident E. R. Smith, British and Imperial forces helped themselves to whatever "curios" they wanted and allowed the civilian population only a short time to gather their things.
[28] According to South African historian Charles Leach, Captain Taylor "emphatically told" the local Venda and Sotho communities "to help themselves to the land and whatever else they wanted as the Boers would not be returning after the war.
"[29] In May 1901, Captain Frederick de Bertodano, an Australian intelligence officer attached to Lord Kitchener's Staff, arrived at Pietersburg intending to speak with Major Robert Lenehan, the Field Commander of the Bushveldt Carbineers.
"[31] On 7 June 1901, Lord Kitchener dispatched A Squadron of the Bushveldt Carbineers, under the command of Captain James Huntley Robertson, from Pietersburg "to establish a forward base camp" at Sweetwaters Farm and Hotel, near Valdezia.
[35] Captain Robertson, who "wore lace cuffs and stood on a plank to keep his immaculately polished riding boots out of the mud", was regarded as "a bit of a dandy" by his men, who "had no respect for him.
[39] According to British anti-war activist Emily Hobhouse, local African chiefs were urged by Taylor "to burn and destroy all the Boers had and to give no quarter, take no prisoners."
[41] Bushveldt Carbineers Lt. George Witton later wrote of Captain Taylor, "As far as the natives were concerned, he had a free hand and the power of life and death; he was known and feared by them from the Zambezi to the Spelonken, and was called by them Bulala which means to kill, to slay.
"[43] On 2 July 1901, Captain Taylor received word that a group of six Boers were coming into the fort, accompanied by two covered wagons and a large herd of cattle.
According to historian Charles Leach, "A .303 calibre volley reverberated down the Levubu River valley and four men and a young boy fell dead on the dirt road."
In a subsequent deposition, BVC Trooper Solomon King recalled seeing Lt. Peter Handcock "walk past carrying the cash box which had been taken from the wagon.
'"[55][56] According to the deposition of BVC Trooper Robert Mitchell Cochrane, the oxen and cattle were stolen by Captain Taylor, secretly driven to Rhodesia, and sold at Bulawayo.
[58] On 4 July 1901, Lt. Handcock led a handpicked patrol of four men, including Trooper van Buuren, from Fort Edward to "investigate Boer activity close by".
[60] In his report to BVC Major Lenehan about the massacre at Valdezia, Captain Robertson described the six victims as "train-wreckers and murderers"[61] and allegedly recommended himself for the Distinguished Service Order.
[64] In response, Captain Percy Frederic Hunt, "an Englishman, a former Lieutenant in Kitchener's Fighting Scouts, and a fine horseman" was ordered to the Northern Transvaal and given command of the Bushveldt Carbineers "B Squadron".
[65] On 4 October 1901, a letter signed by 15 members of the Bushveldt Carbineers (BVC) garrison at Fort Edward was secretly dispatched to Col. F. H. Hall, the officer commanding at Pietersburg.
The author of the letter and the driving force behind it was BVC Trooper Robert Mitchell Cochrane, a former mining engineer and Justice of the Peace from Kalgoorlie, Western Australia.
The slaying of Floris Visser was in retaliation for the combat death of Morant's close friend, BVC Captain Percy Frederic Hunt, at Duivelskloof on 6 August 1901.
The orders, given by BVC Lt. Charles Hannam, to open fire on a wagon train containing Afrikaner women and children who were coming in to surrender at Fort Edward, on 5 September 1901.
[80] After observing the proceedings, Col. J. St. Claire wrote a confidential report to the War Office, "I agree generally with the views expressed by the Court of Inquiry in the opinions of the several cases.
After the murder of Van Buuren the officers seem to have exercised a reign of terror in the District, which hindered their men from reporting their illegal acts & even prevented their objecting to assist in the crime.
This was the first in a series of episodes which upset the Australian Government and its people; it led to a deep dissatisfaction and distrust, to say the least, of Kitchener and the British Army, which has not been fully erased to this day.
In a 2013 review of the film, Graham Daeseler wrote: "The actual Taylor was a ruthless murderer, using the war as an excuse to plunder Boer property and line his own pockets.
Take one look at Waters, though, with that pencil-thin scar on his cheek and that haughty, dead-eyed stare, and you’ll see a glimpse of the monster lurking beneath the gentleman’s façade.