The Last Post Ceremony commemorating the service of (1783) Private Stephen Joseph Morris, 13th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

The Last Post Ceremony is presented in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial each day. The ceremony commemorates more than 102,000 Australians who have given their lives in war and other operations and whose names are recorded on the Roll of Honour. At each ceremony the story behind one of the names on the Roll of Honour is told. Hosted by Troy Clayton, the story for this day was on (1783) Private Stephen Joseph Morris, 13th Battalion, AIF, First World War.

1783 Private Stephen Joseph Morris, 13th Battalion, AIF
KIA 11 August 1916
Story delivered 14 October 2018

Today we remember and pay tribute to Private Stephen Joseph Morris.

Stephen Morris was born in 1886, the son of William and Celina Morris of Greenwich in North Sydney. After attending the Catholic school at nearby Naremburn, Morris worked as a labourer at the North Shore Gas Company and paraded part-time with the 1st Australian Infantry Regiment at Victoria Barracks. He married Neva Hanley in Chatswood in 1907 and the couple began a family: Ellen, Bessie, William, and Violet were born in the years before the war.

Morris enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force at Sydney Town Hall in August 1915, and after a period of training at Holsworthy Military Camp, sailed for Egypt with a reinforcement group for the 30th Battalion four months later. They were destined for the Dardanelles, but the fighting on Gallipoli had ended by the time he arrived, and Australian troops were returning to Egypt after the evacuation. With large number of reinforcements now available, the AIF underwent a major restructure in preparation for its deployment to the Western Front, more than doubling in size.

Morris was transferred to the 13th Battalion as part of this restructure, and spent the following months training near Cairo with No. 14 Platoon in D Company before sailing for France in June 1916. The 13th Battalion spent several weeks raiding and patrolling in the relatively quiet “Nursery Sector” near the town of Armentieres on the Franco-Belgian border. In early July they moved south to support British operations on the Somme near the village of Pozieres.

Along with the rest of the 4th Australian Division, the 13th Battalion fought its first major action on the Western Front on the 4th of August when it repelled a German counter-attack on a position known as the Windmill east of Pozieres village. Over the following weeks, the focus of Australian operations in the sector shifted several hundred metres north to the approaches of Mouquet Farm. The fighting epitomised the experience of trench warfare on the Western Front: German artillery bombarded the Australian positions at all hours of the day; every inch of No Man’s Land was covered by machine-guns. Australian casualties were high, with as many as 23,000 men lost in just six weeks.

On the night of 10/11 August 1916, troops from the 13th Battalion attacked a series of German machine-gun posts in the approaches to Mouquet Farm after a barrage on the German positions. Although the Australians succeeded in capturing the positions, German artillery responded with a barrage of its own and a series of determined counter-attacks that made use of the thick fog that had descended across the battlefield.

According to eyewitnesses, Stephen Morris was struck by pieces of shell fragments during the attack and was killed instantly. Aged 31 at the time of his death, Morris received a battlefield burial, but its location was lost in subsequent fighting. His body was never recovered, and today his name appears on the Australian National Memorial at Villers-Bretonneux, among the 10,737 Australians killed in France who have no known grave and are.

Stephen Morris is listed on the Roll of Honour on my right, among more than 60,000 Australians who died while serving in the First World War.

Thisis but one of the many stories of service and sacrifice told here at the Australian War Memorial. We now remember Private Stephen Joseph Morris, who gave his life for us, for our freedoms, and in the hope of a better world.

Aaron Pegram
Historian, Military History Section