Private Lemuel Morey (Regimental Number 1967) is buried in Wellman’s Cove & Paddock’s
Bight United Church Cemetery.
His occupation prior to military service recorded as being that
of a paper-maker with the Anglo-Newfoundland Development
Company in Grand Falls – for which he was earning a monthly
$26.00 - Lemuel Morey was a recruit of the Eighth Draft.
Having presented himself for medical examination at the
Church Lads Brigade Armoury in St. John’s on November 2 of
1915, he then enlisted – engaged at the daily private soldier’s
rate of $1.10 – and also attested on that same day.
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Private Morey did not sail to the United Kingdom for more than eight months. It was as a
soldier of the second contingent of ‘H’ Company that he embarked for overseas service
onto His Majesty’s Transport Sicilian* (right above) in St. John’s Harbour on March 23-24.
The ship did not sail from Newfoundland until the 25th and likely crossed the Atlantic in
convoy. This would explain what was apparently a slow voyage**: Private Morey did not
disembark in the United Kingdom until April 9, at which time the contingent was
transported to the Regimental Depot in Scotland.
*Some sixteen years previously - as of 1899 when she was launched – the vessel,
originally built for the Allan Line, had been requisitioned as a troop-ship and transport
carrying men, animals and equipment to South Africa for use during the Second Boer War.
**Convoys often altered course and obviously had to travel at the speed of the slowest
ship. Sicilian would also have had to sail to a rendezvous point to meet the accompanying
vessels – a convoy left Halifax on March 31-April 1 to arrive in Liverpool on April 9.
It could also be that she picked up Canadian troops before crossing the Atlantic as she
could carry well over one-thousand passengers with ease.
The Regimental Depot had been established during the
summer of 1915 in the Royal Borough of Ayr on the west
coast of Scotland to serve as a base for the 2 nd (Reserve)
Battalion. It was from there – as of November of 1915 and up
until January of 1916 – that the new-comers arriving from
home were despatched in drafts, at first to Gallipoli and later
to the Western Front, to bolster the four fighting companies of
1st Battalion.
(Right above: an aerial view of Ayr – probably from the period between the Wars: Newtonon Ayr is to the left of the River Ayr and the Royal Borough is to the right. – courtesy of the
Carnegie Library at Ayr)
During the winter of 1915-1916 the men of the 2nd Battalion (Reserve) had been lodged in
several venues, at a nearby military camp at Gailes, but also as far afield as the one at
Paisley Barracks, some sixty-five kilometres distant. However, by the spring of 1916 the
difficulty had been overcome by housing the men in a school, in a tented community and in
the Ayr Racecourse Grandstand, all in the district of Newton-upon-Ayr.
(Right: the new race-course at Ayr - opened in 1907 – where
the men of the Regiment were sometimes billeted and where
they replaced some of the turf with a vegetable garden; part of
the present grandstand is original – photo from 2012)
It was at the Racecourse at Newton-on-Ayr that Private Reid
re-enlisted on June 30, 1916, only nine days before his
departure for the Continent.
During this posting to the Regimental Depot, Private Morey was to spend some two-and-ahalf months in medical care: he was in Heathfield Hospital at Ayr from June 25 until July 25
receiving treatment for diphtheria, and then from August 9 until September 30 in the 4 th
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Scottish General Hospital with an apparently undisclosed problem with the metatarsal(s) in
one of his feet.
Having subsequently been discharged to duty to the Regimental Depot it is likely that
Private Morey was then prevailed upon to re-enlist before travelling to the Continent for
active service with 1st Battalion of the Newfoundland Regiment*.
(continued)
*At the outset of the War, perhaps because it was felt by the authorities that it would be a
conflict of short duration, the recruits enlisted for only a single year. As the War
progressed, however, this was obviously going to cause problems and the men were
encouraged to re-enlist.
The 18th Re-enforcement Draft from Ayr, Private Morey among
its ranks, embarked in the English south-coast port of
Southampton on December 12 of 1916, and arrived to report in
Rouen on the following day. The contingent was then to spend
time in final training and organization* at the large British
Expeditionary Force Base Depot there before being ordered to
proceed to a rendezvous with the parent unit in the field.
(Right above: British troops disembark at Rouen on their way to the Western Front. – from
Illustration)
*The standard length of time for this final training at the outset of the war had been ten
days – although this was to become more and more flexible as the War progressed - in
areas near Rouen, Étaples, LeHavre and Harfleur that became known notoriously to the
troops as the Bull Rings.
After the action at Gueudecourt in mid-October, 1st Battalion
had continued its watch in and out of the trenches of the
Somme – not without casualties – during the late fall and early
winter, a period to be broken only by the several weeks spent
in Corps Reserve during the Christmas period, encamped well
behind the lines and close to the city of Amiens.
It seems to have been on Christmas Day that Private Morey – one of a re-enforcement draft
of fifty other ranks from Rouen – reported to duty with 1st Battalion at Camps-en-Amienois.
Whether the detachment presented itself in time to partake of the turkey dinner –
apparently to be washed down with real ale – is not documented.
(Right above: a typical British Army Camp during a winter period somewhere in France –
from a vintage post-card)
After that welcome six-week Christmas respite spent in Corps Reserve, the
Newfoundlanders had officially returned to active service on January 23, 1917, although
they had been back in the trenches already by that date and had incurred their first
casualties and fatality - of 1917.
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The only infantry activity directly involving 1st Battalion during
the entire period from the action at Gueudecourt in midOctober of 1916, until Monchy-le-Preux in April of 1917, was to
be the sharp engagement at Sailly-Saillisel at the end of
February and beginning of March, an action which brought
this episode in the Newfoundlanders’ War – in the area of the
Somme - to a close.
(Previous page: The fighting during the time of the Battalion’s posting to Sailly-Saillisel
took place on the far side of the village which was no more than a heap of rubble at the
time. - photograph from 2009(?))
Private Morey was not, however, to serve during that
encounter at Sailly-Saillisel. Although having likely been in the
trenches in the vicinity for a short period, on February 26 he
was admitted into the 14th Corps Rest Station with a P.U.O. – a
Pain of Unknown Origin. Some eight days later he reported
back to duty, likely as one of the draft of a single officer and
thirty-one other ranks which arrived at a camp to the rear of
the front lines, in the area of Meaulté on that day.
That officer and thirty-one other ranks were not the only arrivals of that day. The
Regimental Band had travelled from the Regimental Depot in Scotland to be with 1st
Battalion for the following three weeks.
(Right above: some six months later, in September of 1917 – and led by Sable Chief, the
Regimental Mascot – the Regimental Band on parade at Chelsea Barracks, London –
photograph from Provincial Archives)
After Sailly-Saillisel the month of March was a quiet time for
the Newfoundlanders; having departed from the trenches, they
now spent their time near the communities of Meaulté and
Camps-en-Amienois re-enforcing, re-organizing, and training
for upcoming events. They even had the pleasure of that visit
from the Regimental Band, and also one from the Prime
Minister of Newfoundland, Sir Edward Morris (right), the latter
on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day.
On March 29, 1st Battalion began to make its way – on foot –
from Camps-en-Amienois to the north-east, towards the
venerable medieval city of Arras and eventually beyond, their
march to finish amid the rubble of a village called Monchy-lePreux.
(Right: the remnants of the Grande Place of the city of Arras in
early 1916 – from Illustration)
On April 9 the British Army launched an offensive in the area
to the north of the Somme battlefields; this was the so-called
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Battle of Arras intended to support a French effort elsewhere.
In terms of the daily count of casualties it was the most
expensive operation of the War for the British, its only positive
episode being the Canadian assault of Vimy Ridge on the
opening day of the battle, Easter Monday. The French
offensive was a disaster.
(continued)
(Previous page: the Canadian National Memorial which stands on Vimy Ridge –
photograph from 2010)
1st Battalion was to play its part in the Battle of Arras, a role
that would begin at a place called Monchy-le-Preux on April 14
and which would finish ten days later, on April 23, perhaps a
kilometre distant, at Les Fosses Farm. After Beaumont-Hamel,
Monchy-le-Preux was to prove the most costly day of the
Newfoundlanders’ war, four-hundred eighty-seven casualties
on April 14 alone.
(Right above: The village of Monchy-le-Preux as seen today from the western – in 1917, the
British – side of the community. The Newfoundlanders advanced, out of the ruins of the
place, to the east, away from the camera. – photograph from 2013)
It was during the fighting of April 14 at Monchy-le-Preux that
Private Morey was wounded: he incurred gun-shot injuries to
his left thigh and to his arm. He was evacuated from the field
and by the following day had been admitted into the 8th
Casualty Clearing Station in the small community of Agnezles-Duisans to the north-west of Arras. Two days later again
he was transferred to the 6th British Red Cross Hospital at the
coastal town of Étaples.
(Right above: a British casualty clearing station – the one pictured here under canvas for
mobility if and when the necessity arose – being established somewhere in France during
the early years of the War – from a vintage post-card)
At Étaples it was soon decided that Private Morey should be
sent back to the United Kingdom for further treatment. Thus it
was on April 20, three days later, that he crossed the Channel
on board His Majesty’ Hospital Ship Panama (right) and upon
arrival in England, was transported the 3rd London General
Hospital in the Borough of Wandsworth. He was admitted
there on April 21.
(Right: The main building of what
became 3rd London General Hospital
during the Great War was opened, on
July 1st, 1859, as a home for the
orphaned daughters
of British
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soldiers, sailors and
photograph from 2010)
marines.
–
(Above far right: Newfoundland patients, unfortunately unidentified, convalescing at the 3rd
London General Hospital, Wandsworth – courtesy of Reverend Wilson Tibbo and Mrs.
Lillian Tibbo)
(continued)
The following in an excerpt from Private Morey’s medical documentation while he was
hospitalized at Wandsworth: GSW (gun-shot wound) left wrist, perforating; GSW left thigh,
perforating sciatic nerve, palsy; GSW left foot, fracture of phalanges; May 4, operation to
remove pus from middle finger.
At some time, the date apparently unrecorded, Private Morey was transferred to Weir
Hospital in nearby Balham – likely a convalescent institution. However, on July 17, he was
re-admitted into the 3rd LGH where, on August 16, it was decided that he was unfit for
further service. It was then recommended that he be repatriated home to Newfoundland.
Discharged on or about August 24, Private Morey embarked*
on or about August 26 – maybe as late as the 28th, according to
another report - for passage from Liverpool to Halifax, Nova
Scotia. He apparently arrived in Newfoundland from there on
September 13.
*Perhaps on Carmania (right) which sailed from Liverpool on
August 31 to dock in Halifax on September 9.
Almost immediately upon his return, on September 17, Private Morey was returned to
hospital, to the General Hospital in St. John’s where he was to remain for almost two
months. He was then discharged from there and sent on the same November 7 to the
Military & Naval Convalescent Hospital on Waterford Bridge Road in St. John’s.
Released from there on December 19, he thereupon reported two days later to the
Regimental Depot in the capital city for further orders. It was then to be a further two weeks
before a Medical Board deemed him to be medically unfit for further service.
When he was finally released from service does not seem to be clear.
Having apparently expressed his future intention to reside in the community of Springdale,
Private Morey returned home during that winter of 1918. On March 21, Doctor Killan(?) of
the International Grenfell Association who was attending him, reported that his foot had
turned black and hard and was swollen. No diagnosis of his condition appears to be
available among his documents.
The son of John Thomas Morey (deceased 1921) and of Mary Ann Morey (née Wellman,
deceased in or about 1903), he was also brother to Adolphus, Navy; Sydney, Newfoundland
Regiment, Number 4328; Robert, American Army; Roland, refused enlistment twice;
George, refused enlistment thrice; Phillip, Newfoundland Forestry Corps; and Martha, to
whom he had allotted a daily sixty cents from his pay*.
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*information from Rootsweb Web-site.
(Private?) Lemuel Morey was reported as having died on Pilley’s Island on June 23, 1918.
(continued)
Private Lemuel Morey was entitled to the 1914-1915
Star, as well as the British War Medal (centre) and the
Victory Medal (Inter-Allied War Medal) (right).
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