John Charles Morris was from South Hetton. He was born in 1896 and was 18 when he enlisted in the Yorkshire Regiment as 14136 Private Morris. He served in the 8th, 9th and 10th Battalions and was awarded the 1915 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal, as well as the Silver War Badge.
He was wounded in December 1915 and again in November 1916. He suffered a gun shot wound to his left hand and lost part of a finger and substantial power and movement in his right hand. He also suffered a shrapnel wound to his left foot.
These injuries precluded manual work due to a lack of power in his hands. After his discharge in December 1918 he was awarded a pension of 8 shillings a week and was subject to regular reassessments of his injuries.
He died aged 61 in 1957.
Explore more memories from the ribbon
-
Edmund Staveley
Edmund was born around 1885. Little is known of Edmund’s early life. In 1901 the sixteen year old Edmund was living at Park House, the Gayle home of a local solicitor called Simon Willan. Edmund worked there as an office boy. By the beginning of the war Edmund was married to Agnes Waggett and had a son, William, and a daughter, Nora. By then Edmund was employed in helping to run Strands Farm at Simonstone near Hardraw. Edmund enlisted at Leyburn joining the 9th Battalion Yorkshire Regiment. Private Edmund Staveley was killed on the 9th June 1917 during The Battle of Messines. He was 32 years old. He is buried in the Military Cemetery at Poperinge. Edmund’s brother, Lister, had already been killed the previous year during the Somme offensive.
-
William Tuck
Submitted by Marcia Howard. William Tuck was brother to my maternal grandmother Emma Clifford (nee Tuck) in Gloucestershire, my mother’s Uncle Willie, and therefore my great-uncle although I obviously never had the chance to meet him. My Granny Clifford went on to lose 2 more brothers; heartbreaking for both her parents, and for herself and remaining siblings. William Tuck went down with his ship during World War I. His name is on the front panel of the Naval Memorial on Plymouth Hoe. The following entry is from the Register of Naval Memorials erected at Chatham, Plymouth and Portsmouth:- TUCK, Pte. William George, PLY/16293, R.M.L.I. H.M.S. “Monmouth.” Killed in action at Battle of Coronel, 1st Nov., 1914. Age 21. Son of George and Annie Tuck of Britton Bottom, Hawkesbury Upton, Badminton, Glos.
-
Bill Moore
At over six feet tall and 22 stone, Bill Moore must have been an impressive sight! While originally from Wells, he made his way to the north of England with his travelling boxing booth. For a time he set up at Darlington, but at the outbreak of war in 1914, Moore decided to move his show to Catterick Camp. The ‘Tommies’ must have enjoyed what he had to offer. Boxing matches even involved Annie, his daughter and a captive bear which on one occasion escaped onto local moorland. Military Police eventually tracked the animal down, much to the relief of the locals.