Caribbean Volunteer
The Story of Private 7429 Herbert Morris, 6th British West Indies Regiment
Julian Putkowski
Morris was one of 15,440 black soldiers who volunteered to serve with the battalions raised in the British Caribbean. When war broke out, the War Office was very reluctant to encourage the formation of war service units in the Caribbean. Officials were also opposed to the deployment of black troops in Europe, except for those serving with the Army of India. The authorities feared that military training and combat experience acquired by black soldiers in the trenches of Flanders might ultimately threaten the British Empire.
These policies had to be reviewed in 1915 after soaring casualty figures created an otherwise unquenchable demand for reinforcements. Permission was granted for the battalions of black troops to be raised in the Caribbean for war service overseas with the British Army. These units of the British West Indies' Regiment (BWIR) were commanded by white officers. Black soldiers were not permitted to hold commissions and allowances for the BWIR men's families were worse than that of their white counterparts. Nor was it envisaged that the infantrymen deployed in France and Flanders would be allowed to engage directly in combat. Instead it was originally intended that the black soldiers from the Caribbean were to be used as labourers on the Lines of Communication or as stevedores at French ports.
One of the Jamaicans who volunteered to serve with the BWIR was Herbert, the son of William and Ophelia Morris. He lived with his parents in Riversdale, St. Catherine and enlisted on 23 December 1916, joining B Company, 6th Bn. BWIR. The battalion was mobilised for overseas service and arrived in France four month's' later. By May 1917, Morris's unit and two other BWIR battalions were in the Ypres Salient. Since leaving Jamaica, the battalion had lost a dozen men because of illness but it was not long before the unit began to sustain casualties due to enemy action.
The principal tasks carried out by Morris's battalion involved transporting, unloading and stacking shells for the artillery. It was dangerous, backbreaking work and there had been a lot of shells to handle. The sheer magnitude of work carried out by those who fed the guns in the shell-torn salient was unprecedented. During the final week of July 1917 three thousand British artillery pieces located in the Salient had fired four and three quarter tones of shells for every yard of the Front.
On 13 July, the barrage shortened and began to creep at twenty-five yards a minute towards the German lines. Behind the moving curtain of fire, twelve British infantry divisions plodded forward across the shell-churned ground. Then the low-lying clouds, which impeded aerial support from the Royal Flying Corps, simply deluged the battlefield for four days. The Germans counter-attacked, regained much of the lost ground and both sides became bogged down in a loathsome, protracted nightmare later dignified in official histories as the Third Battle of Ypres.
In spite of massive British losses in the initial assault, the unimpaired ability of enemy artillery to scourge everywhere in the Salient and the battlefield quagmire, General Sir Douglas Haig ordered the offensive to be resumed.
Part of the ammunition supply arrangement for the renewed attack involved work for men of the 6 Bn. BWIR. On 20 August, Lieutenant Leonard Roy Andrews, commanding No. 8 platoon, detailed a party of sixty men, including Morris, to prepare to travel by lorry to Essex Farm. The party, under the command of No.14422 Sergeant Goldson, moved off at 9 a.m. from XCP dump, near Poperinghe. They had been told that their mission would be to work for the heavy artillery at Burnt Far, a position located a mile north of Ypres and 500 yards from the font line.
When the men climbed out of their lorries at Essex Far, Morris was reported missing. Sergeant Goldson and No. 7453 Corporal J. Russell, had seen him climb into the last lorry to leave XCP dump but he did no re-appear during their fortnight's duty with the heavy artillery.
What happened to Morris emerged after he head been returned to his battalion, charged with desertion and ordered to face trial by Field General Court Marital at XVIII Reinforcement Camp on 7 September 1917. The court was presided over by Lt. Col. Hon. Herbert J. Nutt DSO, 7 Bn. Warwickshires and the Members were Major Arthur Lloyd-Baker, 1/4 Bn. Oxfordshire & Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and Major M. Grimes, 9 Bn. Nottinghamshire & Derbyshire Regiment. The proceedings were also monitored by Captain Frank Baker, 3 Seaforth Highlanders. Baker was a Courts Martial Officer whose hob was to advise the court on legal procedure.
Morris was undefended, pleaded not guilty to the charge and remained mute as various witnesses for the prosecution testified. The circumstances of Morris's arrest were explained by N. 6325 Sergeant Simpson, 2 Durham Light Infantry, the Orderly Room at St Martin's Rest Camp, Boulogne.
"On 21.8.17 at about 9 A.M. I was in my office when the accused entered & reported that he had been sent to our camp on the previous night by mistake. I questioned him & looked at his papers. The accused had no ticket or leave warrant, but said he was going to HAVRE but did not know why he was being sent there."
Cross-examined by the court, Simpson added that Morris had been in uniform and was wearing his steel helmet but had no rifle, equipment or a gas mask.
No. 7514 Sergeant Anderson, 6 Bn. BWIR confirmed that he had gone to the Assistant Provost Marshal's Office, Le Havre and escorted Morris back to the BWIR camp, Poperinghe.
Morris's defence was brief:
"I am troubled with my head & cannot stand the sound of guns. I reported to the Dr. & he gave me no medicine or anything. It was on Sunday 19.8.17 that I saw the doctor. He gave me no satisfaction."
No witnesses were called to verify Morris's alleged sufferings. The court simply enquired whether the Medical Officer who had examined Morris was available to give evidence. On finding that the officer was not present, the court made no further effort to actively solicit medical opinion or consider an adjournment so that a Medical Board could be convened to assess the defendant's mental state. Instead, the court proceeded to find Morris guilty of desertion and sentenced him to death.
The failure to hear medical evidence which could have supported Morris's defence was particularly serious because there was not system of appeal against either the verdict or sentence of the court. The flaw may not be explained away by the court's ignorance of military or civilian judicial principles, for the Court Martial Officer was a qualified barrister and the President had been an experienced magistrate in civilian life.
Before the proceedings ended, the court also heard evidence of Morris's disciplinary record. He had been fined seven day's pay for fighting in his billet on 3 June and for going absent without leave had been punished with 14 days' Field Punishment No. 1. The latter offence had occurred on 16 July and Morris had been arrested in Boulogne the following day. However, cross examined by the accused, the prosecutor, Lieutenant S.C. burke, Adjutant of the 6 Bn. BWIR, stated that he had heard of no other complaints about Morris's conduct.
Two witnesses who had earlier given evidence for the prosecution were also summoned to provide the court with personal assessment of Morris's character. Lieutenant Andrews declared:-
"The accused has never given me any trouble. He is well behaved. I have known the accused for 6 months. His intelligence is higher than that of the ordinary man in my platoon."
Corporal Russell confirmed Andrews' opinion, stating Morris had never given him any trouble and was a willing worker.
Had this been all that was said, there remained a distinct possibility that the death sentence might have been commuted. However, Andrews, probably in response to a question by the court, remarked that on 16th July the 6 Bn BWIR had been at Poperinghe. The comment drew attention to the fact that fourteen days Field Punishment No. 1 had failed to deter Morris from committing almost exactly the same offence.
Because the entire proceedings were comparatively brief this addenda could not have been missed by the man whose sole signature confirmed the court's verdict and sentence - Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig.
Haig read the proceedings on 15 September, just as he was preparing to launch a further offensive to capture Passchendaele, thus the announcement of an execution could be publicised to generally deter soldiers from deserting on their way to the front. Moreover, there had been a series of recent reports about trouble with non-European military labourers in Northern France.
For example, after a severe enemy air raid on the night of 4 September, Chinese labourers and broken out of their camp in fear of another bombardment. Some had scattered into the Fourth Army area, doing a considerable amount of damage, breaking into houses and generally misbehaving.
A simultaneous air raid on Boulogne had caused the workers of Nos. 73 and 74 Companies of the Egyptian Labour Corps to strike in a dispute about the terms of their contracts. When they apparently tried to break out of their camp a Garrison Battalion was called out, formed three sides around the unarmed strikers and opened fire. Seventeen strikers were killed outright and twenty-five wounded; one British soldier was shot dead and three or four wounded by the fire of their comrades
On 11 September, the Commandant of Calais Base reported another strike by No.74 Company, Egyptian Labour Corps. This time British troops killed four and wounded fifteen strikers. Twenty-five of the survivors were sent to prison.
In the context of these summary affairs, Haig's approval of Morris's execution would have been relatively unexceptional. It is also apparent that Haig had scant personal appreciation of the impact an artillery bombardment had on those who operated and served the guns. Well behind the lines on 1 July, Haig had merely been woken up unusually early by the noise and vibration caused by artillery bombardment on 31 July. However, when Morris deserted, conditions for artillerymen in forward positions around Ypres were so stressful that gunners had to be relieved every twenty-four hours, unable to cope with the hellish burden of sustaining the prolonged artillery barrage.
Even had Morris been able to withstand the stress, he should not have been in the Ypres Salient at all because he was only 17 years old, officially too young for overseas' service. His youth alone ought to have provided a powerful reason to halt proceedings but because of Haig's belief in the disciplinary benefits afforded by executions, even his age may not have been enough to save Morris from the firing squad.
The Assistant Provost Marshal of XVIII Corps, Major Mellor arranged to have Morris executed at Poperinghe Town Hall. Before being shot at 6.10 am on 20 September 1917, Morris wrote a final letter to his mother telling her he could not stand the noise of the heavy guns.
