Clarence George (Clarrie or Ned) MORRIS

MORRIS, Clarence George

Service Number: WX5575
Enlisted: 11 December 1940
Last Rank: Private
Last Unit: 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion
Born: Tambellup, Western Australia, 25 September 1919
Home Town: Tambellup, Broomehill-Tambellup, Western Australia
Schooling: Not yet discovered
Occupation: Oxy worker
Died: Perth, Western Australia, 28 September 1986, aged 67 years, cause of death not yet discovered
Cemetery: Karrakatta Cemetery & Crematorium, Western Australia
Lawn 2, GG/68
Memorials: Ballarat Australian Ex-Prisoners of War Memorial
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World War 2 Service

11 Dec 1940: Enlisted Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, WX5575, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion
30 Sep 1942: Imprisoned El Alamein, missing in action from 27 Jul 1942; interned Camps 57, 82 and 106; returned to Australia via UK Nov 1944
10 May 1945: Discharged Australian Military Forces (Army WW2), Private, WX5575, 2nd/28th Infantry Battalion

Help us honour Clarence George Morris's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.

Biography contributed by Cherilyn McMeekin

Clarence was the fifth of eight children born to Joseph and Elsie. All four of his brothers served in WWII. His father Joseph also enlisted and was part of the Australian Home Guard (Volunteer Defence Corps).

Clarence enlisted in Dec 1940. He was promoted to Acting Corporal and then Acting Sergeant as part of the Training Battalion, reverting to Private on joining the 2/28th Battalion. 

His battalion was captured at Ruin Ridge, El Alamein, in Jul 1942. Clarence was a POW on board the Italian transport ship Nino Bixio when it was torpedoed by a British submarine in the Mediterranean on 17 August 1942. The Nino Bixio was transporting Allied POWs from Libya to Italy. He was one of the 122 Australian POWs to survive the incident. 

Clarence was returned to Australia in Nov 1944. He described some of his experiences as a POW in an interview with the local newspaper, the Albany Advertiser in Dec 1944. See  https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/70451919.

Clarence married Dorothy Violet DESCHAMPS in Perth in 1945 (reg. 2137). He died in 1986 aged 67.

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