Major Charles Alan Smith Morris.
1895 - 1917
3rd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment.
3rd Battalion Bedfordshire Regiment.
Major Charles Alan Smith Morris was the third child, and only son, born to Maud and Charles Smith Morris on 15th May 1895 at Bridgend. His father, Charles, was the second son of landowner George Byng Morris (1816-1899) who owned the Mynydd Newydd Copper mine at Fforestfach, where he most probably gained the interest, which,as a mining engineer, would take him initially to Cardiff and eventually Bridgend. Charles Senior, also played for Swansea RFC 1876-1878; playing against Landovery College on 4thNovember 1876 in the first competitive match held at the new St Helen’s field. His brother George Lockwood Morris gained Swansea’s first international cap in 1878.
Sadly, young Charles would not get the opportunity to play rugby at that level because after completing his education at Wellington College, and his first year at Pembroke College Cambridge, where he was studying law, he enlisted as an officer into the 3rdBattalion Bedfordshire Regiment. On 5thMarch 1915 his battalion landed in France, where within a few days, he had been transferred to the 2ndBattalion and was engaged in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle where he suffered a shrapnel wound in the right knee. Following convalescence 2ndLieutenant Morris was posted, with over 1,500 Bedfordshires to Salonika to swell the ranks of the 5th Royal Irish Fusiliers whose number had been depleted at Gallipoli. Landing on 18thNovember, once again 2ndLt Morris was soon to find himself in the action, but this time in charge of a company. Despite having little frontline experience, on 8thDecember, his battalion having lost men and their position, a fortification on ‘Rocky Peak,’ Lt Morris personally led a counter-attack and regained the ground. However, the Bulgars retaliated with constant shell and machine gun fire. Morris was hit and disappeared into the descending fog. Fortunately, his batman, found him, carried him down the mountain to safety. Charles Morris had been shot in the shoulder, yet after another bout of treatment he returned to the frontlines in September 1916. Having been promoted to Captain he was given the command of a raiding part only a couple of days after arriving.
During the months leading up to the Battle of Arras, Morris’s battalion, 1st Bedfordshires, was engaged in general trench duties; but on 23rd April, as part of the division, they were ordered to attack the German position at La Coulette. “Captain Charles Morris, in command of ‘B’ Company was killed whilst he rallied his men and led another attack from the front against the machine-guns dominating the second trench line.”(Extract taken from '1st Bedfordshires. Part Two; Arras to the Armistice')
Officially referred to as Acting Major Morris, he was initially reported as having been killed on 23rdApril. However, some months later his personal effects were among five cases returned to England via the Red Cross, in which it was stated that he had died as a prisoner at Malmaison, a fortnight later, on 7thMay. Major Charles Alan Smith Morris was 21years old.
Initially Major Morris’s body was, one of six British soldiers buried, by the enemy, in the Evin-Malmaison Communal Cemetery. However, following the end of the war the Imperial War Graves Commission removed the graves to the Pont de Jour military cemetery, Athies, north- east of Arras. The IWGC, which changed its name, in 1961, to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, had acquired many plots of land along the Western front in the years after the war, in which to re-locate many graves, which had been dug indiscriminately amid the carnage. Originally, the brain-child of Sir Fabian Ware, who had recognized amongst the enormous number of servicemen being killed, the need to document and record the names of the fallen and their graves, the IWGC, had been granted its Royal charter on 21st May 1917.
In 1919, Major Morris’s parents, who had moved to Clevis House, Newton in 1909, having received the news of his death were two of the first relatives to journey to the battlefields to pay homage to their son. For anyone this journey would have proved exceptionally difficult, as modes of travel would have been arduous and the battleground still awash with ruts and shell holes. Yet, for Charles Senior it would have been even more of a challenge, as he was registered blind.
Sadly, young Charles would not get the opportunity to play rugby at that level because after completing his education at Wellington College, and his first year at Pembroke College Cambridge, where he was studying law, he enlisted as an officer into the 3rdBattalion Bedfordshire Regiment. On 5thMarch 1915 his battalion landed in France, where within a few days, he had been transferred to the 2ndBattalion and was engaged in the Battle of Neuve Chapelle where he suffered a shrapnel wound in the right knee. Following convalescence 2ndLieutenant Morris was posted, with over 1,500 Bedfordshires to Salonika to swell the ranks of the 5th Royal Irish Fusiliers whose number had been depleted at Gallipoli. Landing on 18thNovember, once again 2ndLt Morris was soon to find himself in the action, but this time in charge of a company. Despite having little frontline experience, on 8thDecember, his battalion having lost men and their position, a fortification on ‘Rocky Peak,’ Lt Morris personally led a counter-attack and regained the ground. However, the Bulgars retaliated with constant shell and machine gun fire. Morris was hit and disappeared into the descending fog. Fortunately, his batman, found him, carried him down the mountain to safety. Charles Morris had been shot in the shoulder, yet after another bout of treatment he returned to the frontlines in September 1916. Having been promoted to Captain he was given the command of a raiding part only a couple of days after arriving.
During the months leading up to the Battle of Arras, Morris’s battalion, 1st Bedfordshires, was engaged in general trench duties; but on 23rd April, as part of the division, they were ordered to attack the German position at La Coulette. “Captain Charles Morris, in command of ‘B’ Company was killed whilst he rallied his men and led another attack from the front against the machine-guns dominating the second trench line.”(Extract taken from '1st Bedfordshires. Part Two; Arras to the Armistice')
Officially referred to as Acting Major Morris, he was initially reported as having been killed on 23rdApril. However, some months later his personal effects were among five cases returned to England via the Red Cross, in which it was stated that he had died as a prisoner at Malmaison, a fortnight later, on 7thMay. Major Charles Alan Smith Morris was 21years old.
Initially Major Morris’s body was, one of six British soldiers buried, by the enemy, in the Evin-Malmaison Communal Cemetery. However, following the end of the war the Imperial War Graves Commission removed the graves to the Pont de Jour military cemetery, Athies, north- east of Arras. The IWGC, which changed its name, in 1961, to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, had acquired many plots of land along the Western front in the years after the war, in which to re-locate many graves, which had been dug indiscriminately amid the carnage. Originally, the brain-child of Sir Fabian Ware, who had recognized amongst the enormous number of servicemen being killed, the need to document and record the names of the fallen and their graves, the IWGC, had been granted its Royal charter on 21st May 1917.
In 1919, Major Morris’s parents, who had moved to Clevis House, Newton in 1909, having received the news of his death were two of the first relatives to journey to the battlefields to pay homage to their son. For anyone this journey would have proved exceptionally difficult, as modes of travel would have been arduous and the battleground still awash with ruts and shell holes. Yet, for Charles Senior it would have been even more of a challenge, as he was registered blind.
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Porthcawl War Memorial
Between 1917 – 1920, £400 had been raised for a town memorial. This was augmented by a further donation of £100 from Mr Charles Morris, father of Major Charles A.S. Morris who had been killed in May 1917. 
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