Appendix ONE. Where Dr Arthur Harry Morris RAMC served

My father, Dr Arthur Harry Morris, who in this Blog I will refer to as "Arthur", rather than as "dad" or "daddy"etc, was still training to be a doctor at Bristol University Medical School when the First World War broke out in 1914. (In fact the family was on holiday in Lusteigh on the edge of Dartmoor on 4th August 1914, a date that was also my grandfather's 60th Birthday - the holiday and birthday celebrations were cancelled as folk returned home to Bristol.)
Arthur, like most of the other students joined the Officer Training Corps, but after about three months of training he and other medical students who had finished their “Part Ones” were put in what was called a “Special Reserve” (SR sometimes gets mentioned in the letters). They were sent back to university to finished training to be doctors on the understanding they would join the RAMC on qualifying.
Arthur was in the OTC long enough to be photographed in uniform (I can tell from the cap badge that this is not his RAMC uniform; it may well be the cap badge of the local regiment: the Gloucestershires):

Arthur took the London Exams and while in London for one exam he witnessed a Zeppelin Raid from very close quarters; I think it was the raid near the British Museum. He qualified LRCP/MRCS in October 1917 and then had to spend three months working at the Bristol General Hospital. And here is a photograph of him just after he qualified while amputating a thumb.

On 29th January 1918 Arthur was commissioned as a 1st Lieutenant in the RAMC and sent to Rochester Row Military Hospital in central London for some basic training. This was the hospital where among other things he had to help carry out a vast numbers of (anti)VD injections.

This is his official portrait from when he was commissioned and here you can clearly see the cap badge of the RAMC (entwined serpent etc):

And these are some very posed photos that my grandfather took of Arthur in the garden while wearing various different bits of his uniform:

On 8th February 1918 he was sent to the RAMC Depot at Blackpool for vaccinations and more training e.g. in gas protection measures, drill etc.  

On 22nd Feb 1918 he was also used as the officer to conduct a draft of soldiers to France (Rouen) and for one day while over in France (23rd Febuary 1918) Arthur was the acting adjutant to No 1 Camp. BEF at Le Havre.

On the 6th March 1918 Arthur was used as the officer to conduct a party of Royal Scots Fusiliers in full Highland Kit with pipers to Kinross in Scotland.

On 16th March 1918 he was posted to France to join the 55th West Lancashire Division

On 17th March 1918 he joined the 1/3 West Lancashire Field Ambulance part of 55th Division (For those new to Army nomenclature note that a “Field Ambulance” is a medical support unit not a vehicle, although it did also use vehicles that we would think of as anbulances in the civilian sense.)

On 21st March 1918 he joined 2/1 Wessex Field Ambulance which was also part of 55th Division despite is not being at all Lancastrian (Arthur was with 2/1 Wessex in the “Thick of it” on the La Bassee Front during German Assault of April 1918)

On 20th May 1918 appointed Medical Officer to the 1/5 Battalion Kings Own Royal Lancashire Regiment also part of 55th Division. Arthur was with the 1/5 KORL during final advance into Belgium and at the Armistice. (I will make a separate list of his movements with the 1/5 KORL during that advance.) Just after the Armistice Arthur also had to act as MO for hundreds of British soldiers released from POW camps who had had no treatment for months.

On 29th January 1919 he was promoted Captain (RAMC promotions were more or less automatic given the ages and civilian positions of the men who were doctors. E.g. senior consultants might immediately become Lt Colonels in the RAMC, though of course they had only the basic military know-how.).

On 22nd Feb 1919 Arthur was additionally attached to the 1/5 Battalion South Lancashire Regiment as their MO (also part of 55th Division).

On 26th Feb 1919 Arthur briefly rejoined the 2/1 Wessex Field Ambulance.

In March 1919 Arthur went on leave to get married to Margery Davies.

On 24th March 1919 Arthur returned from leave and while still officially with the 2/1 Wessex Field Ambulance he was actually used wherever the 55th Division needed him while the Division and indeed the entire army was being reorganised.


On 31st March 1919 Arthur left the 55th Division and was then attached to 5th Army. (On 1st April 1919 the 55th Division was sent to Germany as part of Army of occupation. The CO of the 1/5 KORL had asked to have Arthur back, but Arthur reluctantly said no. Arthur later changed his mind about what he had seen as the benefit of returning to the 1/5 KORL when he was tipped off that they were getting sent from Germany to Ireland. The 1/5 KORL went to Ireland in September 1919.)

On 4th April 1919 Arthur was posted to 39th Stationary Hospital at Ascq outside Lille. (While here he himself was hospitalised with Spanish flu. He recovered and he was then one of those that used pioneering fresh-air treatment to help patients recover. The 39th SH was a tented hospital so all he had to do was to remove the side walls of the tents.)

On 5th August 1919 Arthur was posted to HQ Tournai sub-area. He was billeted with the Hivres family at 10 Rue Cottrell in Tournai. (He was joined by his wife Margery on 24th August 1919.)

On 3rd October 1919 appointed MO i/c British troops Tournai. (While in Tournai Arthur was the Medical Officer to deal with British military personnel in the whole of that corner of Belgium including 650 Germans in POW camp).

On 5th December 1919 Arthur moved via Ypres to 10th Stationary Hospital at Remy Sidings west of Poperinghe

On 9th December 1919 Arthur was also temporarily attached to a Labour Corps as MO.

Arthur was demobbed in the Spring of 1920.


Alfred