Information submitted by Mrs Drury of Richmond.
Arthur Selwyn Morley MC was one of nine children of a Weardale hill farmer who sold up in 1894 and moved to Houghton-le-spring, County Durham. Arthur ran with the Houghton and District Harriers. When war broke out Arthur and three of his five brothers joined up. His regiment was the Durham Light Infantry and he did his training at Bullswater Camp, Woking, Surrey when he was a Lance Corporal in 1914, before he proceeded to the Flanders trenches. On one of his precious leaves he married in haste, as many soldiers did who had seen the countless deaths and injuries and knew their own chances of survival were not good.
On one occasion in the trenches Arthur took command of his company, being a temporary Second Lieutenant, when senior officers became casualties. He led several attacks on an enemy position and behaved with great coolness and courage until his battalion was relieved. For this conspicuous gallantry he was awarded the Military Cross, but only weeks later he was killed and never got the chance to see his daughter.
His name is on the Menin Gate. His elder brother William had a son soon after Arthur’s death and named that son for Arthur.
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2nd Lt Geoffrey Roper MC
Submitted by Zoe Johnson at the Richmondshire Museum. Geoffrey Stapleton Rowe Roper 2nd Lieutenant Alexandra Princess of Wales Own, Yorkshire Regiment. His Canadian service records show that Geoffrey served as a private in Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry Imperial Army from which he was discharged on the 15th October 1915 to join the Yorkshire Regiment as a 2nd Lieutenant. He was awarded a Military Cross for conspicuous gallantry in action on the 25th of August 1916 when ‘he held his platoon with great dash in the assault, and afterwards crawled back to the trenches to make a report. He then returned to his platoon being under close and heavy fire’, this extract was taken from the London Gazette. Serving with the 7th battalion during the Arras offensive of 1917 on May 9th, 2nd Lt Roper and his men were moved into the line in trenches north of the river Scarpe. The battalion were involved in a bitter fighting around Curly and Cupid trenches and had gone into the line with 18 Officers and 436 other ranks and when they came out on May 15th there were only 5 Officers and 228 men left. 2nd Lt G S R Roper MC was killed in this action on May 12th 1917 aged 27. He is remembered on the Cabaret-Rouge British cemetery, Souchez, 7 miles north of Arras. He was the son of George and Elizabeth Roper of The Lodge, Gilling West, Richmond; his Father being a local magistrate and county Alderman, holding…
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Thomas Henry Wright
Lorna Pound visited us on one of our drop-in days to share the story of her grandfather, 58755 Sapper Thomas Henry (Harry) Wright. Harry was born in Richmond on 18 October 1878. At just 14 years old he attempted to enlist with the West Yorkshire Regiment in York on the 2nd November 1892, claiming he was 18 years old. Eight days later he was discharged with a payment of £1. In the face of this set back he continued with his apprenticeship as a saddler with Mrs Rymer in Northallerton. It is likely that he re-enlisted again sometime after reaching the age of 18 years as a photograph taken in the early 1900s shows him in uniform as a Lance Corporal. In 1918 he married and was still employed as a saddler with H Myers in Richmond Market Place. On 26th December 1914 he presented himself for enlistment into the Royal Engineers. It is said within the family that he was told if he enlisted early he could keep his trade of saddler whilst serving. Sadly Sapper Wright’s papers did not survive the bombings of the Second World War and therefore it is not known which unit he originally served with but he was initially sent to Egypt on 7th August 1915. He certainly served in France for some time as numerous embroidered cards survive which he sent to his wife and children. By the end of the war in 1918 he was serving with 5 Corps Signals Company Royal…
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Percy Perry
Information provided by Roger and Helen Raisbeck. Percy Charles Perry was born on 22 June 1886 to George and Selina Perry in Dorset, England. In 1902, at the age of 16, he joined the 5th Battalion of the Coldstream Guards at Yeovil (probably transferring to London before 1905). In 1905 he transferred to the army reserve (and enlisted again in 1914 service number 18562, Coldstream Guards). He fought at the Battle of Mons which was the first major action of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in the First World War. He was wounded in action and hospitalised. He sent a photograph postcard home to his wife, Lucy, simply saying “I am first on your left [in the picture], going alright, PP”. Unfortunately he was unable to return to action and was discharged on 7 October 1915. He qualified for the 1914 Star (also known as the Mons Star) on 13 August 1914 as well as being awarded the British War medal and the Victory medal. Percy had 5 brothers, 4 of which joined the navy. One of his younger brothers, Ernest Sydney Perry, was lost in the Battle of Coronel off the coast of Chile on board HMS Monmouth on 1 November 1914. A newspaper cutting calling the Perrys a “Family of Patriots”, shows Percy in the centre flanked on either side by his brothers. Percy returned to civilian life back in England after his discharge in 1915 and encouraged his daughter Edna May Perry to knit socks for soldiers…