Profile

MORRIS, Francis
(Service number 44068)

Aliases
First Rank	Private	Last Rank

Birth

Date	22/05/1888	Place of Birth	Timaru

Enlistment Information

Date		Age
Address at Enlistment	Bluecliffs, St Andrews
Occupation	Gardener
Previous Military Experience
Marital Status
Next of Kin	William John MORRIS (brother), Elgin Street, Waikiwi, Invercargill
Religion	Church of England
Medical Information

Military Service

Served with	NZ Armed Forces	Served in	Army
Military District

Embarkation Information

Body on Embarkation	New Zealand Expeditionary Force
Unit, Squadron, or Ship	25th Reinforcements, specialist Company, Machine-Gun Section
Date	26 April 1917
Transport	Turakina
Embarked From		Destination

Other Units Served With
Last Unit Served With

Military Awards

Campaigns
Service Medals
Military Awards

Award Circumstances and Date

No information

Prisoner of War Information

Date of Capture
Where Captured and by Whom
Actions Prior to Capture
PoW Serial Number
PoW Camps
Days Interned
Liberation Date

Discharge

Date		Reason

Hospitals, Wounds, Diseases and Illnesses

Post-war Occupations

Death

Date		Age
Place of Death
Cause
Notices
Memorial or Cemetery
Memorial Reference
New Zealand Memorials

Biographical Notes

Francis Morris was born on 20 May 1888 at Timaru. Although he gave his father's name as William, when he enlisted, it is thought that he was the son of John Morris and Harriet née Cockroft. No birth registration has been identified. In 1917 he named his brother William John Morris of Invercargill as his next-of-kin. John and Harriet appear to have moved to Inangahua or Reefton after Frank's birth. Another son, Thomas Henry, was born in 1892 at Reefton. Tragedy struck after Thomas' birth, when Mrs Morris took ill and died in August. The oldest son, Edward James Morris, drowned accidentally in the Inangahua River on 12 January 1894, aged just 11 years. Little Thomas died in September 1894. The family resided at Black's Point, where John was a miner. In December 1896 both Frank and William were registered at West Taieri School (Outram) under the guardianship of James Sawers. From there they were to go to the Industrial School in July 1900. Mr Frank Morris was accorded a farewell social at the Bluecliffs Hall in early December 1916, as he was about to leave with the 24th reinforcements. The 24th Reinforcements – F. Morris included - left Timaru for Trentham by the second express on 5 January 1917. They were entertained by the ladies of the Patriotic War Relief Society in Miss Read’s Stafford Tea Rooms. The 2nd (S.C.) Regimental Band was in attendance and Senior Cadets formed a cordon at the Strathallan Street crossing. He arrived back in New Zealand in October 1917, in a party of sick and wounded men. Frank Morris was a solder at camp at Devonport in 1919 and a gardener in Auckland in 1928.

Sources

Auckland War Memorial Museum Cenotaph Database [14 August 2019]; Inangahua Times, 30 & 31 August 1892, 13 January 1894 [x 2], 15 January 1894 [x 2], West Coast Times, 8 September 1892, South Canterbury Times, 12 January 1894, Timaru Herald, 4 December 1916, 5 January 1917, Evening Star, 19 October 1917 (Papers Past) [07 January 2014; 17 & 18 August 2019]; NZ Electoral Rolls (ancestry.com.au) [August 2019]

External Links

Researched and Written by

Teresa Scott, SC branch NZSG

Currently Assigned to

Not assigned.

Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License unless otherwise stated.

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