Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

#4479  MORLEY George Thomas  26th Infantry Battalion
 
George Morley was born at Traralgon in the Gippsland region of Victoria. He attended school there and probably then worked in various labouring or farming pursuits. Perhaps seeking new opportunities, George relocated to the Coalstoun Lakes district in the North Burnett region of Queensland where he took up farming.
 
George travelled to Brisbane on 18th January 1916 to enlist in the AIF. He gave his age as 29 years and stated he was a farmer and single. He named his widowed mother, Sarah Morley of Gormandale in Victoria as his next of kin.
 
George reported to Enoggera Camp where he was placed in a depot battalion before being assigned as a reinforcement for the 26th Infantry Battalion. On 30th March, George and the other 100 or so reinforcements for the 26th boarded the “Star of Victoria” in Brisbane. He had allocated 3/- of his daily pay of 5/- to his mother. George arrived in Egypt at the end of April and spent some time in a transit camp.
 
By the time George arrived in Egypt, the 26th Battalion had been re-equipped after the evacuation of Gallipoli and had already sailed for France and the Western Front. George and his mates from the 11threinforcements boarded a ship in Alexandria for the four day voyage to Marseilles. George and his mates then made their way to the British transit camp at Etaples where they remained for most of June and July.
 
On 1st July 1916, General Douglas Haig launched the much anticipated Somme offensive on the northern bank of the Somme River, on the Western Front. Things did not go well with over 20,000 British soldiers killed and another 40,000 wounded on the first day. Very little gains in territory were made but with no other plan, Haig was determined to push on; sending his regiments of conscripts towards well entrenched German positions where they were cut down in large numbers. By the middle of July, still determined to push on, Haig ordered three of the four Australian divisions into the battle. One division, the 5th, was so badly smashed at Fromelles that it ceased to be a viable fighting force for the next 15 months.
 
The 1st Australian Division was ordered up to the line just east of Albert with the task of attacking and capturing the village of Pozieres which sat just below the crest of a gentle ridge which was the highest point in the landscape. On the 21st July, with very sketchy intelligence, the 1st Division of the AIF comprising four brigades of infantry attacked the village of Pozieres. Protected by an artillery barrage, the village which had been reduced to rubble was taken.
 
On 29th July, battalions from the 2nd Division of the AIF, which included the 26th Battalion attempted to capture two lines of trenches right on the crest of the ridge, beyond the ruined village. The attack failed due to heavy machine gun fire and heavy artillery. Two battalions of the 7th brigade, the 25th and the 26th took the brunt of the fire and casualties were heavy. The British Commander of that part of the battle ordered the Australian Divisional Commander to regroup for a second attempt.
 
George and probably up to fifty reinforcements from Etaples were rushed up to the assembly area to take the place of the killed and wounded. George was officially taken on strength by the 26th on 2nd August. Within hours, the 7th Brigade again charged the German trenches. This was George’s first time in action. On 5th August, a further advance placed the battalions of the 7th Brigade at an enemy blockhouse which had been constructed on top of a ruined windmill. Once a counter attack was repelled, the blockhouse was occupied.
 
The 2nd Division was relieved after 12 days in the line at Pozieres. When battalion Sergeant Majors called the roll, 6,800 men failed to answer their names; killed wounded or missing. One of the missing was George Morley. George’s mother was informed that her son was missing and like so many other mothers who received such news, she waited to hear if he was in hospital or a prisoner of war. A Miss J. Marshall of Biggenden, having seen George’s name in the casualty lists that were printed frequently in the newspapers, wrote to the authorities in Melbourne enquiring about George.
 
It was not until July 1917, a year since the Pozieres battle, that a battalion court of inquiry determined that George Morley had been Killed in Action. The date ascribed to his death was the 5th August but realistically no one could know. He was a brand new reinforcement that nobody knew or had a chance to know. George was listed as Killed in Action, Grave Unknown. Once a death certificate could be issued, George’s estate could be settled. A firm of solicitors in Brisbane handled the matter and Henry Diver of Coalstoun Lakes was named as executor.
 
 
The battlefield at Pozieres had been churned up as a result of extensive artillery bombardments during 1916 and would again be fought over twice more in 1918. The remains of many who fell in July and August 1916 were never recovered. Belatedly, the Australian Government resolved to build a permanent memorial to those who had lost their lives in France during the war and had no known grave. In 1938 the newly crowned King George VI and his wife Queen Elizabeth unveiled the Australian National Memorial at Villers Bretonneux. The limestone tablets bear the names of 11,000 Australians who perished in France during the great war and have no known grave. George Morley is among those 11,000.
 
A stone tablet was placed on the site of the Pozieres Windmill which reads in part:
 
The ruin of the windmill which lies here was the centre of a struggle on the Somme battlefield in July and August 1916. It was captured by Australian Troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefield of the war.