Morris, JL

Driver John Lionel Morris

Born on August 25^th 1898, John was the eldest child of a stockbroker, also named John Morris, and his wife, Lydia. He spent time at Alleyn’s before coming to Dulwich in September 1913. He subsequently was at the College for the next two years, leaving in the summer of 1915 whilst a member of the Modern Upper Fifth.

In August 1916 John enlisted in the Honourable Artillery Company and spent the next nine months in England undergoing training at Bulford Camp. In late March 1917 he was sent abroad for the first time, as his unit was assigned to sail to Alexandria, in Egypt. Subsequently, on April 15^th, he, along with many others, was aboard the Arcadian, when it was torpedoed in the Mediterranean. He survived and was indeed responsible for the rescue of many of his comrades, but the injuries he had sustained, along with the exposure to the water, brought on appendicitis, and later pleurisy. He continued grow more and more ill, until he passed away on August 10^th, two weeks short of his nineteenth birthday.