Robert Oliver MORRIS

[cath151]

Hi
There is a small newspaper piece of 1916 which mentions a Robert Morris aged 21 who was from the Welsh Regiment and whom was wounded and lost a leg. Sounds possibly like the soldier from  Jim1 s post. It mentioned him returning home to Blackheath.Will check but think paper was the tamworth Herald.

Cathy

[cath151]

Tamworth Herald 9th Sep 1916
He had 27 wounds, 17 of them Bayonet wounds and a leg amputated.
Possibly a coincidence as home town Black Heath does nt fit.

Cathy
Added... although there is a Blackheath in Essex

[cath151]

Same piece also in the Cheltenham Chronicle  9 Sep 1916.
Cathy

[mickawinn]

I think that the newspaper items may be possible Cath. As I said he married in 1917 in the district of Blacheath. I have found the medal record but even with the number 13060 I cannot find service or pension records. May have to accept they are amongst the lost.

[cath151]

Hi,
The medal card for Robert Morris 13060 is available but unfortunately I can t find any other records either.
Robert mentioned in the newspaper was 21 and single in 1916.
Another rather gruesome detail was that he had a inches long piece of bayonet taken out of his breastbone that he had shaped to hang on his watch chain.
What a pity his records don t seem to have survived , they would have made interesting reading.
Best wishes
Cathy

[mmm45]

Enlisted Aug 1914 discharged august16 with wounds from Silver War Badge Roll on ancestry
Ady

[jim1]

Sounds like the Somme.
He might have been here as he appears to have reached the German trenches by the nature of his wounds.
High Wood:
Frank Richards in Old Soldiers Never Die describes the conditions in High Wood at about this time. Parts of the parapets of trenches contained the corpses of those killed in earlier attacks, and he describes heads, arms and legs sticking out. Because of the severe firing, the bodies of men killed had been used as shields by the survivors, and they had then been covered by earth to build up a parapet. Now, when shells landed near, during a very heavy bombardment which the 2nd Royal Welch Fusiliers endured, the dead were blown out of these pararpets once more. Reading this, it is perhaps not surprising that so many killed in High Wood have no known grave.

There were minor advances however - some more of Intermediate Trench to the west of High Wood was taken on the 11th of August, plus some of the Switch Line.

[mickawinn]

Cath,where did you look up the newspaper items?

[cath151]

Hi,
Do you have a sub to FindMyPast ? They are available there
Cathy