Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

#3410  MORRISSEY Augustine (Morry)                     28th Battalion
 
Augustine Morrissy was born to William and Margaret Morrissey in the small town of Nathalia between Shepparton and the Murray River in Victoria. Augustine attended the Public School at Picola near Nathalia. It would seem that he was the only boy in a family of five. The Morrissey family moved north into the South Burnett to take up grazing and farming opportunities. At some stage, Augustine acquired the nickname of “Morry.”
 
When Morry attended the recruiting depot in Adelaide Street in Brisbane on 29th September 1916, he stated he was a 30 year old farmer and grazier from Taabinga near Kingaroy. Morry reported to the Enoggera Camp where he was placed into a depot battalion for initial training and issue of uniform and equipment before being allocated to the 8th reinforcements of the 4th Pioneer Company. After a period of home leave, during which he made out a will with a solicitor in Kingaroy, Morry embarked on the “Beltana” in Sydney on 25th November. When the “Beltana” reached Freemantle, a number of men on board, including Morry, were disembarked on 4th December due to an outbreak of measles. The sick were isolated at the hospital at Blackboy Hill.
 
By the time that Morry and the others had recovered, the “Beltana” had sailed and the recruits were then under the jurisdiction of the 5th Military District, Western Australia. On 29th January 1917, Morry and 7 others who had been disembarked from the “Beltana” were transferred to the 19th reinforcements of the 28thBattalion and re-embarked on the “Militades” for the long voyage to England via South Africa and Sierra Leone.
 
The reinforcements arrived in Devonport on 27th March and were transported to the 7th Brigade Training Battalion at Rollestone on Salisbury Plain. Morry had a brief stay in hospital at Fargo with influenza but by the 30th July, he was crossing the English Channel on a night ferry to the large AIF base at Etaples where he remained until progressing on to join up with his battalion.
 
The 28th Battalion was primarily composed of men from Western Australia or South Australia. Two other battalions in the 7th Brigade, the 25th and 26th, were mainly Queenslanders. The 7th brigade was part of the 2nd Division of the AIF which had endured a torrid time during 1916 and early 1917 at Pozieres, Mouquet Farm, Flers, Bapaume and Bullecourt. The entire division was resting and reorganising in the rear areas behind the ruined city of Ypres in Belgium when Morry marched into the battalion lines.
 
Morry and John Hall, a 33 year old miner from Western Australia, had become “great mates” during the voyage to England and they continued to be together when posted to the 28th on 18th August 1917. The Flanders campaign had begun with the Battle of Messines Ridge in June of 1917. Once the ridge was secured, the rest of the campaign, known as the 3rd Battle of Ypres or more commonly Passchendaele could get under way using a “bite and hold” strategy to advance in a series of contained steps from the city ramparts of Ypres eastward towards the Broodseinde Ridge and the village of Passchendaele.
 
The first of the steps was to secure the Gheluvelt Plateau which overlooked the Menin Road. The 1st and 2nd Divisions of the AIF would join with a number of British Divisions in securing positions along the Menin Road from which further advances could be made.
 
Since joining the 28th in camp near Poperinghe, Morry and John had been busy taking part in brigade and divisional training for the coming offensive. There were also march pasts to mark visits by both Lieutenant General Birdwood and Field Marshall Haig. In the first week of September, the 28th moved up to billets at Steenvoorde to finalise preparations for the coming Battle of Menin Road. The men of the 2nd Division moved up to the Ypres Ramparts on 18th September and then marched through the night to the start line on the 19th. The battle commenced at 3:40 am on 20th September with an enormous artillery barrage. As the line of the barrage crept forward, the assembled infantry closely followed.
 
The accounts of the battle are contained in the war diary of the 28th and describe a situation which was at time confused and even chaotic. During the infantry advance, as described by a witness in a Red Cross report, Morry and John who were advancing together were blown to pieces by an artillery shell. It was the first action for both and they were killed together without firing a shot or seeing the enemy. There are no burial reports for either man and it can be concluded that any remains, if located, were unidentifiable.
 
Morry’s mother wrote several moving letters to the authorities requesting information about her “dear boy,” in the firm belief that he was buried somewhere. She stated she was “broken hearted.” Eventually, Margaret received a parcel containing her son’s personal effects; an identity disc, a purse and a photo. She stated in a letter that Morry was wearing a gold wristwatch but there is no evidence that this item was located and returned to her.
 
When a death certificate stating that Morry had been Killed in Action on 20th September 1917 was provided, his estate was distributed equally between his four sisters; Ada, Alice, Ellen and Mary.
 
With no known burial, Morry’s family were unable to receive a photograph of his grave or to choose an inscription for his headstone. Morry Morrissey and John Hall are among the 54,000 soldiers of Britain and the Dominions, 6000 of whom are Australians, who lost their lives in Belgium during the conflict and have no known grave. The missing are commemorated on the tablets of the Menin Gate Memorial in Ypres where each evening since the construction of the memorial in 1928, the citizens of the city commemorate the sacrifice of those young men with a ceremony which concludes with the recitation of the Ode and playing of the Last Post.
 
The Australian war artist Will Longstaff painted a poignant depiction of the Menin Gate; “Menin Gate at Midnight.” This painting toured the nation throughout the 1920s and 30s to wide acclaim and was particularly well received by the families of the 6,000 Australians listed there. The painting is now a prized exhibit in the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.