Category Archives: Dardanelles

Ernest Victor Morris

Commemorated name/s, Dardanelles, Other Regiments, RFC / RAF

Ernest Victor Morris
Air Mechanic 2nd Class B/40997
56th Kite Balloon Section, Royal Flying Corps.

  Division 18 

 Morris EV photo  CIMG2092

Ernest Victor Morris was the son of Frederick Watson Morris and Louisa Morris, of 27, Castle Street, Reading. The 1911 census Louisa Morris ran a Cornmerchants from the home address with Ernest and his sister Hilda working in the business. Ernest’s father was an overseer at the Post office as did sister Ethel who was a telephonist. He was the husband of Dorothy Mary Harris (formerly Morris), of 59, Blenheim Road, Caversham, Oxfordshire. Born about 1891 Ernest Victor was  aged 27  when he was lost at sea on the 31st December 1917 .  He is commemorated on his parents grave and also the Chatby memorial, Egypt.

From 1914 to 1919, transports and Hospital Ships traversed the seas to and from Alexandria, bringing reinforcements for Egypt, Gallipoli or Palestine and carrying the sick and wounded out of the theatres of war.  Hundreds of men died on the high seas from sickness, wounds or accident and received the same burial as a sailor who dies at sea.  Their graves are the sea itself and the Chatby Memorial records their names.

On the 30th December 1917, the hired transport ship “Aragon” was torpedoed whilst entering the harbour at Alexandria.  The Master, eighteen crew and 380 soldiers bodies were not recovered.  The following day the hired transport “Osmanieh” struck a mine in the same place and sank together with 76 men who sailed in her.  It is not yet known in which of the two ships Ernest Victor Morris sailed.

William Walter Love & Leonard Noble Love

Army, Commemorated name/s, Dardanelles, Graves, Other Regiments, St. Batholomew's Church, Ypres

William Walter Love M.M.
Sergeant -Major Royal Marine Light Infantry
Royal Naval Division

Leonard Noble Love
Corporal 52805
“B” Battery Royal Horse Artillery

Division 52

Love WW photo Love LN photo

William Walter Love and Leonard Noble Love are commemorated on the grave of their parents, Mary and William Robert Love and also on the St. Bartholomew’s Church memorial.   At the time of their deaths the Love family were living at 49, St. Bartholomew’s Rd. Reading.   The 1901 census indicates that Mr William R. Love, aged 39, was already a widower. William Love’s  widowed mother and sister were living with the family which comprised five children, four boys and one girl at 12, Mancherst Road. WilliamR Love was a carpenter and joiner by trade.

William Walter Love  was described in the 1911 census as a bicycle engineer. He was killed in action on Oct. 26th 1917 aged 23.  He was the third son of Mr. W.R. Love. He had served with the Royal Naval Division throughout the Gallipoli campaign. His death was reported in the Standard November 17th 1917.

The 26th October 1917 marked the beginning of the Second Battle of Passchendaele.  The German front line was hit with shell fire along its length for four days preceding the start of the battle.  Due to the naturally high water table and broken dykes the battlefield was largely a sea of mud.  The Royal Naval Division attacked on the left hand side of the Canadians who were attacking Bellevue Ridge, they gained some ground but with heavy losses.  It is probable that William Walter Love was amongst them.  Serjeant Major Love has no known grave and is commemorated on the Tyne Cot Memorial Panel 1 and 162A.

It has not been possible to find the citation for his Military Medal.

Leonard Noble Love was the second son of Mr. Love.  Leonard served 6 years (8 years in one report) in the regular army. The 1911 census indicates that Leonard Noble Love was born in 1891 and was then aged 20. He was in Z Battery RHA. He was serving in Egypt,Sierra Leone, South Africa and Sudan.

Leonard Noble Love was mentioned in dispatches in Sir Charles Monroe’s Gallipoli dispatch.  A report in the Chronicle 2nd July 1915 was an extract from a letter sent to his father on 11th May 1915.

“I am writing this in a trench with the rain pouring down, hoping that it will soon cease, as it is not very comfortable.  We have been in action since 27th April.  Our troops are making progress in the right direction.  We had rather a big night attack on the 1st May, but things ended up alright in the finish.  Since then we have advanced.  We get very good rations, and plenty of them, which is a great thing, as one always feels better after a good meal.  I am glad to say that the rain did not last long this morning; the weather is perfect.  Things are rather quiet this morning , and have been so for the last two or three days.  There is the usual spasmodic burst of shrapnel and rifle fire.

“I have seen one of the most thrilling sights of my life -that was the bombardment of the forts by the Navy.  For about three days it was like a tremendous thunderstorm.  Buildings were changed into heaps of dust, big guns were dislodged from their mountings, and, to sum up the whole thing, the Turks were ‘none too happy.’   It is a great thing to see the way our infantry behave, and to see them charge is a great sight.

“ I got in rather a tight corner on the night of the 1st May but managed to scrape through all right.  While I am writing there is a howitzer battery engaging a turkish battery, and what I can see they are smashing it up.”

Unfortunately he was killed in action on January  6th 1916,  the day before the last of the army was finally evacuated from Gallipoli. (Chronicle July 21st 1916)  He also has no known grave and is commemorated on the Helles Memorial Panel 21 and 22.

Mr. Love’s youngest son Lance Corporal Fred Love enlisted  with the Royal Berkshire Regiment served in France from March 1915.

 

John (Jack) Bright

Army, Commemorated name/s, Dardanelles, Other Regiments

John Bright
Private PO/658 (S)
Portsmouth Battalion Royal Marine Light Infantry

Division 11

Bright John photo  CIMG2087

 

John Bright is commemorated on a small “Book” memorial, together with his father and mother.  The grave number is 9389 and the Berkshire Family History Society classification 11____.  He was the second son and his parents Samuel and Emily Bright lived at 60, Elgar Road.  He had two younger sisters. Private Bright enlisted in October 1914; prior to the war he had been employed by S. & E. Collier as a Burner, his father was a foreman at the brickworks.  He was educated at Katesgrove and Central Schools.  Known as Jack, he was well known in the local swimming world and won, two years in succession, the Palmer Challenge Cup, open to those who attending local elementary schools.  He was married at Christmas 1914.

Jack had been in the Dardanelles since February 1915 and had been shot in the arm on the 3rd May, but recovered quickly and went back into line. Various ages are given in the sources researched.  He was about 26 and due to have a birthday in November.   It was several weeks before he was officially confirmed as killed in action.  He was originally posted as missing on July 13th 1915.  Inquiries were made by his parents and wife which eventually yielded the information that he had been killed in action.  The exact circumstances of his death follow.

The Standard of 19th November 1915 published a letter from Lady Agnes Peel, Honorary Secretary of the Royal Naval Inquiry Bureau, Alexandria.  Writing to his wife Mrs. Bright nee Hart, of 42, Surrey Road, Reading the letter was as follows:

“I deeply regret to inform you that the following account was given to one of our visitors in hospital of the action of July 13th, in which your husband, John Bright, P.O./S. 658, Portsmouth Battalion, was reported missing: By Private Wain, of the same battalion.  Wain said that on 13th July he and Bright were lying down in the open preparatory to an advance.  Bright was the fourth man on Wain’s left.  Bright received a shrapnel wound in the back which killed him instantly.  The Portsmouth Battalion retired temporarily from the spot, but re-occupied it in a few hours.  Bright was buried by the pioneers.  As you will understand, this is not official information, and it may be some time before it is officially reported.  But there is, I am afraid, no reason to doubt the truth of Private Wain’s statement.  I thought it better to tell you of it.  Please accept sincere sympathy in your great trouble.”

The torturous Dardanelles campaign was a war of attrition that took place in phenomenal heat and was accompanied by plagues of flies.  The aim being to break the will of the defenders or throw the invaders off the peninsula.  Eventually, after the loss of over 100,000 men including those from Australian and New Zealand, the Gallipoli peninsular was successfully evacuated during December and the early days of January 1916.  The withdrawal was as silent as it was secretive, only a handful of men manned the trenches to maintain the appearance that all was as it had been. Success was measured by the fact that only two men were injured during the withdrawal.

Having no known grave, Private Bright is commemorated on the Helles Memorial, Turkey. Panel 2-7.