Private Papers of Lieutenant A A Morris

His First World War diary (two notebooks, with typed transcription, c 175pp) kept during service in the 4th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (later with the Grenadier Guards), beginning with his mobilisation in March 1915 proceeding to Rouen in northern France to join the Battalion (9th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Division) and from there to Ypres, describing in rather laconic fashion his first tourist-like experience of the dangers and grim sights of the front line, life in the trenches (at that time a reasonably quiet sector), `collecting' religious artefacts as souvenirs from bombed houses and churches, the war damage in Ypres town, his largely peripheral experience of the Second Battle of Ypres (April – May 1915) including German use of poison gas, a vivid account of his more direct involvement in the assault on Bellewaarde Ridge (June 1915) during which he was wounded, treatment in No 14 General Hospital at Wimereux before being evacuated back to England and the military hospital at Millbank, London, followed by a period of sick leave and home service prior to returning to France in September 1916 with the ? 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards (Guards Division), deployment to the Somme initially at Fontaine-le-Sec (Abbeville) then to the Albert – Bapaume sector from November 1916 – January 1917 when he went on leave to the UK, the transcription concluding with a detailed account of the actions of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, 3rd Guards Brigade, during late August 1918 in the Second Battle of the Somme, in the Mory – St Leger area (this section not in the manuscript diary, but presumed written by Morris); with a small number of associated documents including hand-drawn maps to accompany the diary [Lt A A Morris died in September 1918, his war grave is in the Sanders Keep Military Cemetery at Graincourt-les-Havrincourt].

His First World War diary (two notebooks, with typed transcription, c 175pp) kept during service in the 4th Battalion Royal Fusiliers (later with the Grenadier Guards), beginning with his mobilisation in March 1915 proceeding to Rouen in northern France to join the Battalion (9th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Division) and from there to Ypres, describing in rather laconic fashion his first tourist-like experience of the dangers and grim sights of the front line, life in the trenches (at that time a reasonably quiet sector), `collecting' religious artefacts as souvenirs from bombed houses and churches, the war damage in Ypres town, his largely peripheral experience of the Second Battle of Ypres (April – May 1915) including German use of poison gas, a vivid account of his more direct involvement in the assault on Bellewaarde Ridge (June 1915) during which he was wounded, treatment in No 14 General Hospital at Wimereux before being evacuated back to England and the military hospital at Millbank, London, followed by a period of sick leave and home service prior to returning to France in September 1916 with the ? 4th Battalion Grenadier Guards (Guards Division), deployment to the Somme initially at Fontaine-le-Sec (Abbeville) then to the Albert – Bapaume sector from November 1916 – January 1917 when he went on leave to the UK, the transcription concluding with a detailed account of the actions of the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, 3rd Guards Brigade, during late August 1918 in the Second Battle of the Somme, in the Mory – St Leger area (this section not in the manuscript diary, but presumed written by Morris); with a small number of associated documents including hand-drawn maps to accompany the diary [Lt A A Morris died in September 1918, his war grave is in the Sanders Keep Military Cemetery at Graincourt-les-Havrincourt].

Cataloguer JS / SWW

Catalogue date 2006-01-04