TOPIC:

Hello.

I'm new at this forum so please bear with me.

I'm looking for as much information as possible about my great grandfather,

gunner Bernard Morrison of the Royal Field Artillery. He took part in the

battles/campaigns of the River Colony, Transval, Belfast. He was duly

awarded the South Africa(Queens) medal with orange clasp. Later he served in

the Special Reserve from August 1908 to 1911 and was discharged from the

Reserve in Athlone. The officer signing his discharge papers was a captain

and adjutent of the 42nd Brigade Royal Field Artillery.

Perhaps someone in this forum might know something about gunner Morrison, or

how I might further proceed with my investigations in this matter. Thanks in

advance. John

John,

Welcome to the forum John!

I had a look at the medal roll. There is man, 39099 Gunner B Morrison who served a Gunner in T Battery RFA. He gained the clasps Belfast, Orange Free State and Cape Colony.

The medal roll says he sailed for England, time expired, on 3 Mar 01. This service should have entitled him to the SA01 clasp but it seems a 3 clasp medal was issued to him. Is that what you have?

There is some information about the exploits of T Battery on this site.

It doesn't look like there are service papers for him. Did he serve in the Great War?

Regards
David

Thanks a million, David, for the prompt response to my query.

I was sent some documents by an aunt of mine, who is the sole surviving
grand daughter of Gunner Bernard Morrison. Unfortunately, the documents are in a rather tatty condition, having lain dormant and decaying in the attic of his wife Agnes's house. I intend to have them restored, if this were to be possible, hopefully to something approaching their original condition.
From what I can decipher from these four documents in total, they appear to
be a collection of documents concerning various transfers and discharges.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find, as of yet, any trace of the
medal and clasps.

39099 Gunner Bernard Morrison was finally discharged from the Special Reserve, RFA in 1911 at the age of 47 and it appears, that he didn't serve in the Great War.

David, how do I go about checking his earlier service under the colours?

Kind regards.

John.

John,

Good luck with the restoration work. That sounds a very valuable thing to do.

The best way to research his earlier service is with the help of Service Papers. These give some biographical background and the key points of his service, where he served, education, promotions, medals etc. Unfortunately many of these were destroyed in the blitz and the earlier search for B Morrisons came up empty which means, as he didn't serve in the Great War, that his papers are probably lost.

This makes it very difficult to piece together a detailed picture for him. We know he served in T Battery so this is probably the next best thing to pursue. A good place to start with this would be the RA Museum to see if they can help.

Best wishes
David

Hello John,
I would expect any surviving service papers to be at the TNA Kew in WO97, almost all, but note, NOT all, are available on on line at FMP, I have proved this to be the case on more than one occasion.
Manual searchs are still possible but they do tend to prove fruitless.
Moreover,it is possible that papers that should not be in WO364, are actually indeed in filed in WO364, these even include men who fought in the Crimea!
Regards Frank

Thanks for all your help David, very much appreciated

John.