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News has been received of the death in action in France on August 10 of Lieut. Herbert Fraser Morrison, M.C. Lieut. Morrison, who was the youngest son of the late Mr. H. Howard Morrison, of East Melbourne, and whose grandfather was Dr. Alexander Morrison, of Scotch College, was at the landing on Gallipoli, where he received a wound in the leg. After recovery he rejoined his unit, and later, after an attack of fever, went to France. There he was wounded a second time, and lost an eye, after which he was employed for some time in a staff position, with the rank of captain, in London. An application to rejoin the forces in France was refused, but on appeal to General Birdwood, who commended his manly spirit, he was allowed to go, and at Ypres, on October 23 last, by his conspicuous bravery, won the Military Cross. He remained on active service till he received the wounds from which he died on August 10 in the 20th Casualty Hospital. Lieut Morrison's two brothers, Lieut H. Clive Morrison, and Bmdr. A. E. Morrison, and his brother-in-law, Lieut. Clive A. Fergie, are on active service in France.

From Francois Somme

Lt Herbert Fraser Morrison MC
5th Australian Infantry Battalion,
2nd Brigade, 1st Australian Division, AIF
 
Across the fields of poppies, silent, walk slowly, carried by a summer breeze, the ghosts of thousands of young men, witnesses of a distant past who, more than a hundred years ago, fought on these sacred fields of the Somme on which stand today, in peaceful cemeteries, the solemn graves bearing in epitaphs, in a few words, the history of a whole generation of young boys who, under the darkening clouds of the north of France, through the mud, in the barbed wire, paid the supreme sacrifice, the price of freedom and peace in which we live our today thanks to the courage and sacrifices of these heroes who, so young but already so brave in the ardor of their youth, gave their all so far from their homes. They were Australian and French, British and Canadian, South African but behind their uniforms, behind their sights, standing admirably on the front line, they were above all men who were loved, who wanted to live but who gathered when the bells of war were heard and in camaraderie, in the fraternity that bound them in life, moved forward together for the same causes around the same values ​​so that their war would put an end to all wars but so many of them never saw their loved ones again and after the horrors they endured, found after a last breath, the rest of a flower-filled grave and the eternal love of the people of France who will always watch over them with love and gratitude so that their memory and their names can live forever.

Today, it is with the deepest sense of gratitude and with the utmost respect that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men, one of my boys of the Somme who, for Australia and France, in the ANZAC spirit, for all of us, gave his life.I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Lieutenant Herbert Fraser Morrison who fought bravely in the 5th Australian Infantry Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st Australian Division of the Australian Imperial Force, and who died of his wounds 106 years ago, on 10 August 1918 at the age of 26 on the Somme front.

Herbert Fraser Morrison was born on 5 December 1892 at Inveraven, Erin Street, Richmond, although on his enlistment papers he stated that he was born in East Melbourne. He was the third and youngest son of Henry Howard Morrison (known as Howard) and his wife Esther, nee Mack (or Mark), and a grandson of Dr. Alexander Morrison, headmaster and principal of Scotch College from 1857 to 1903. Howard was a tea merchant with premises in Flinders Lane. The Morrison family moved to East Melbourne in 1894, first renting at Hazelhurst 4 George Street, then in 1898 buying Rossmoyne, 30 Powlett Street. Herbert was educated at Scotch. Esther died in 1904 when Herbert was twelve. Howard then married Margaret Ann Younie Walton in 1906. He died two years later and Rossmoyne was sold.

When he enlisted on 17 August 1914 Herbert described himself as an importer and was possibly working in his father's business. However his will dated 24 March 1914 describes him as a grazier of Reedy Creek, Broadford. He had had military experience in the College Cadets. He was 5ft 10ins with a dark complexion, brown eyes and black hair. He was appointed to the 5th Battalion as a private.
He embarked aboard the Orvieto on 21 October 1914. This was the first troop ship to leave Victoria, meeting other ships from other states in Albany, Western Australia, and was the flagship for the fleet as it sailed to Egypt. On 9 November and fifty miles from the Cocos Islands HMAT Sydney, which was part of the convoy, sank the German cruiser, Emden, and its crew were placed on board the Orvieto as prisoners. When the convoy reached Port Said the prisoners were transferred to another ship. On arrival at Alexandria on 2 December the battalion travelled by train to Mena Camp just outside Cairo.

Herbert was promoted to lance corporal on 22 February 1915. The battalion left Mena Camp on 4 April bound for the Dardanelles. Herbert took part in the legendary Anzac landing on 25 April where he was wounded with a gunshot to the leg, and was hospitalised in Alexandria, then Malta. He was appointed corporal on 9 May 1915. Back in Alexandria he embarked for the Dardenelles again on 16 May. He was promoted 2nd lieutenant on 4 August 1915. A few days later he would be involved in the Battle of Lone Pine. On 31 August he contracted gastritis at Anzac. He spent time in hospitals in Malta and was eventually admitted to the 3rd London General Hospital on 13 September 1915 with the diagnosis changed to dysentery.

It was not until 24 February 1916 that he was deemed fit for duty and placed on the unattached list. He left England with the 26th Draft to join the British Expeditionary Forces in Egypt on 25 March 1916 and disemarked on 5 April. He embarked for Marseilles on 20 May 1916 and disembarked 27 May. He was back with the 5th Battalion on 20 July. According to the Unit Diary on 3 August Morrison was sent to Lewis Machine Gun School returning on 12 August when the unit was at Vadencourt Wood on its way to the forward trenches at Pozieres. He was promoted to lieutenant 9 September 1916. At Ypres, on 20 September 1916, he suffered a gunshot wound to the left eye. He was admitted to the 3rd London General Hospital on 24 September 1916. His admission papers stated that, 'He has lost his left eye, but is quite convalescent.' He was transferred to 5th Auxiliary Hospital on 7 November 1916. He was eventually fitted with an artificial eye.

He was discharged on 8 February 1917, deemed fit for active service. According to his obituary in the Argus he applied to rejoin the forces in France but was refused, '"but on appeal to General Birdwood, who commended his manly spirit, he was allowed to go." So after a few months on duty at the High Commissioner's Office, Perham Downs he procceeded overseas on 14 May to rejoin his unit, by then back in Ypres after service at the Somme. On 20 September, exactly a year after losing his eye, he was involved in an incident as part of the Battle of Menin Road which later earned him the Military Cross.

The Recommendaton read:
"In the operations (near the Reutlebeek) east of Ypres on 30th (sic - Unit Diary confirms date as 20th September 1917), Lieutenant Morrison was in charge of the left support company. When the Commander of the leading Company was killed Lieutenant Morrison took charge of the left flank, established the line, reorganised his men and delivered a local attack on Black Watch Corner in an effective manner. At all times during the action this officer showed judgement and coolness and instilled confidence in his men by continually moving from post to post over ground swept by machine guns and snipers."

In January 1918 he was granted three weeks' furlough in England. On 3 May 1918 he was wounded in action a third time. This time the wound was minor and he remained on duty. Three months later he was not so lucky. He was shot in the chest, spine and abdomen during action on 9 August 1918 near Villers-Bretonneux and died the next day. A witness later gave a report:
"Early in August we were about 2 killed. further up from our old front line and about 5 kil. in front of Villers-Bretonneux. Mr. Morrison was severely wounded in the stomach by a machine gun bullet. I saw him on a stretcher being carried from the F. [Field] Ambulance station to the C.C.S. (20th Casualty Clearing Station), this would be a distance of at least 10 killed. We were in action 4 days and when we came out I heard he had died. He was buried somewhere at the rear. Our Padre, R. Davis, used to be either at the Field Ambulance or the C.C.S., but whether he was there to read the Service I don't know. The following morning Mr Morrison's brother, who was in D. Coy. came over to take his brother's place in C. Coy. and about 3 a.m. he evidently missed his way for he walked straight into Fritz's lines and got taken prisoner. This Lt. Morrison who had died had been with the Bn. since the beginning and had lost an eye at Gallipoli. He was about 26/28, a very fine soldier and most popular with everyone, he was very fair complexioned while his brother was a bit dark. We used to call the former "Mac" Morrison."

Today Lieutenant Herbert Fraser Morrison rests in peace alongside his men, friends and brothers in arms at Vignacourt British Cemetery, Somme, and his grave bears the following inscription: "Died for his country."

Herbert, over a hundred years ago today, your life ended in the red fields of the Somme but we still remember you, we remember your brothers in arms who, behind you, with you, from the sunny shores of Australia, crossed the seas to fight in France, all united to do their duty, all volunteers to preserve peace and freedom, to stand by their friends and brothers in the battles through which the young Australian soldiers wrote the legend of the ANZAC spirit which, in 1915, was born on the blood red hills of Gallipoli and where the Diggers who proved themselves to be true warriors who, at Lone Pine, at The Nek, ANZAC Cove, Suvla Bay, shed their tears and blood under machine gun fire and fell in the sand of a peninsula so far away on which Australia was born as a nation and whose sons and daughters served with such bravery, endurance and perseverance despite the suffering, despite the pain and sorrow they endured with such strength and who, after the nightmare of the Dardanelles, after the crushing heat of Egypt, joined the front line in the north of France where at Fromelles, between July 19 and 20, on the Sugar Loaf, bayonets forward, under hellish fire, charged with determination in camaraderie to be mowed down by the thousands in the clay and barbed wire in a hasty attack during which they had no chance of reaching the enemy lines which poured down on the Australians hail of bullets and lead who, despite everything, refusing to retreat, refusing that their friends had died for nothing, despite the death that awaited, joined their friends in the fire and by on the same occasion, showed once again all the qualities of the cobbers but also the bravery of the entire Australian nation which, in this month of July 1916, mourned so many of its sons who lay lifeless side by side and of whom so many were never found.

However, the war, like a demon thirsting for lives gave no respite, no chance to breathe and on July 23, 1916, in the Somme began then for the Australian Imperial Force and its men, a carnage on a scale never seen before in a hell that the world had never known and which still today, remains as the most murderous battle that they endured during a hellish period of six weeks during which 23,000 souls fell into a burning cauldron made of guts, skeletons, steel and mud.

At Pozieres, the Australians suffered cruelly from the worst artillery bombardments that they experienced during the whole war and waited, without escape, without shelter, with the courage to go over the top under tons and tons of shells that buried them alive, that reduced them to pieces leaving nothing of the men they were. At Pozieres, with exceptional courage, they led no less than 19 attacks against the German trenches as well as against the impregnable Mouquet Farm. Standing, holding themselves determined, we saw them rush screaming onto the no man's land and in waves, in front of the barbed wire, were riddled with bullets before silence returned to show only mountains of bodies mixed together. Pozieres was a nightmare, an execution field on which thousands of white graves still stand today but this sadly famous village was not the only battle led by the Australians who, in November 1916, at Flers and Gueudecourt then in April 1918 In Villers-Bretonneux, in Le Hamel in July 1918 and in Amiens in August 1918 fought once again and definitively stopped the German army who said of the Australians "these men are real devils who are afraid of nothing". From Gallipoli to Amiens, in the Somme, their road was long, paved with blood, bravery and sacrifices.

They lost their friends, their brothers, their fathers to offer us the dearly paid peace in which we live thanks to them and we must never forget. Today, these young Diggers rest in peace in the peaceful cemeteries of our small villages and I am proud and honored every day to watch over them, to perpetuate their memory, to keep alive and honor the friendship that unites our two nations. In the Somme, the spirit of Australia and ANZAC will live forever.

Thank you so much Herbert, for all that you did and gave for my country which will never forget.At the going down of the sun and in the morning,we will remember him,we will remember them.

I would like to extend my warmest and most respectful thanks to the East Melbourne Historical Society for their invaluable help without which I would not have been able to write this tribute.