Pte 23796 Michael Edward Morris

At the time of the 1901 census the family is living at 23 Field Street, Birkenhead, with three children. His father is a dock labourer, Michael is 5.

 

He was educated at Our Lady’s School, Birkenhead.

 

By 1911 the family have moved to 39 Payson Street, Birkenhead, with six children.  His father is 45, a dock labourer, his mother is 36, Michael, 15, is a puddling furnace apprentice in an iron and steel works.  Winifred, 13, John, 11, and Richard, 8, are at school.  Ann is 4 and Gerard one year old.

 

The next year he enlisted, on 12th July 1912, in the 3rd Battalion (Special Reserve) of the Cheshire Regiment as Private 9333, when he was 16 years old.

When his service ended after one year, he immediately enlisted at Chester on 14th July 1913 in the Grenadier Guards as Private 16583, giving his age as 19 years and 3 months, when in fact he was 17 years and 11 months.  He is described as being 5’ 7 and a half inches tall, weighing 143 lbs, with a fresh complexion, blue eyes, and light brown hair.  He gives his religion as Roman Catholic, and as next of kin his parents Michael and Bridget and brothers John and Gerard, 59 Payson Street.

 

He arrived at Caterham Guards Depot in Surrey on 17th July 1913. 

 

On 08th December 1913 he was convicted by Regimental Court Martial for absenting himself without leave and was sentenced to 28 days’ detention.  He was released and discharged for misconduct on 01st January 1914 after 172 days’ service. 

 

A memo in his file to the Regimental Adjutant justifies his discharge:  “He was enlisted at a time when the regiment was much below establishment and is only 5’ 7 and a half inches in height.  I am certain that he will give continual trouble if retained.  I do not consider he has misconducted himself with a view to discharge.” A further statement found in the discharge papers is a somewhat derisory description of Michael's character: The memo to the Reg. Adjutant on discharge states:  “This man is a dirty low class blackguard and not a fit man to associate with decent men”  

 

To Michael's credit, he enlisted again, in Birkenhead, after the outbreak of war, on 10th December 1914, as Private 23796, joining the 11th Battalion of The King’s Liverpool Regiment, and arrived in France on 19th May 1915 according to his medal index card (De Ruvigny gives the date 22nd April 1915).  

 

At some point he was transferred to the 19th Battalion, The King’s Liverpool Regiment as Private No 23796 aged 23 when he was killed in action on the 23rd March 1918, during the German Spring Offensive. 

He was killed after the German breakthrough around St Quentin. The 19th Battalion had been stationed behind the Battle Zone near Germaine when the German attack began on 21st March. It moved up to man battle stations, and took the brunt of the German assault at Roupy on the 22nd,when it was all but wiped out. It was then forced to retire through Fluquieres, towards Ham which it reached at 02.00am on the 23rd. Ham itself fell at 06.00 am that morning and the Battalion was further forced to retire to the canal bank between Esmery Hallon and Moyencourt. By this time it had sustained losses of 19 officers, and 340 other ranks. 

Michael has no known grave and is commemorated on the Pozieres Memorial in France.

The POZIERES MEMORIAL relates to the period of crisis in March and April 1918 when the Allied Fifth Army was driven back by overwhelming numbers across the former Somme battlefields, and the months that followed before the Advance to Victory, which began on 8 August 1918. The Memorial commemorates over 14,000 casualties of the United Kingdom and 300 of the South African Forces who have no known grave and who died on the Somme from 21 March to 7 August 1918.

The cemetery and memorial were designed by W.H. Cowlishaw, with sculpture by Laurence A. Turner. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Horace Smith-Dorrien on 4 August 1930.