Current Information:

Age-22

54, Sedgmoor Place, Camberwell

Fauquissart Military Cemetery, Laventie, France

At the start of the war the 2nd Royal Berkshire battalion were in India but they soon returned to England where they joined 25 Brigade of 8th Division. The division landed in France on 6th November, 1914 and on 14th November 2nd Berkshire moved into the trenches for the first time when they took over the front line at Fauquissart near Laventie for three days. They remained in this sector for the rest of the year either in the front line or in reserve. One period in these trenches was from 9th-12th December during which John Morris was killed on 11th December, but the battalion diary has no information about his death. The attrition rate among British soldiers on the Western Front was on average 300 each day and 60% of these were as a result of shellfire. When not involved in an actual battle it was either shell fire or a sniper’s bullet that caused most deaths and injuries.