STRATHBLANE WORLD WAR ONE PROJECT: 11 DANIEL MORRISON, PRIVATE KING’S OWN SCOTTISH BORDERERS, AGED 38
“Of a quiet and retiring disposition, he put his heart into whatever he took up.”
Milngavie & Bearsden Herald October 1917
At 38, Daniel Morrison is the oldest man on Strathblane War Memorial. A brief article in the local Milngavie & Bearsden Herald in October 1917, entitled “Strathblane Soldier Killed” noted that Private Morrison of the King’s Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB) had been twice wounded and “seen a good deal of fighting and hardships”. They are words that could sum up his life.
In March 1879 he had been born Daniel Jolly, the illegitimate son of Mary Jolly, a domestic servant, in the Edenkiln area of Strathblane. There is no father’s name on his birth record but by the time he was two years old, Daniel’s surname had been changed to Morrison. Could this be his father’s name? In 1881, mother and son were sharing their three-roomed home not only with Daniel’s 19-year old half-brother William Renfrew (also illegitimate) but also a 25-year old Irish lodger along with her week-old baby.
Daniel was studious, receiving merit certificates at Strathblane School. The 1891 Census lists him as a 12-year old scholar and Mary Jolly as a laundress. At some point Mary may have worked where the current Blanefield takeaway is located, as the building housed a laundry in the early 20th century. In 1901, Daniel is described as a self-employed labourer but meanwhile he had developed into a prize-winning athlete competing throughout Scotland. He remained a batchelor, living with his mother right up to 1914.
Home was Dumbrock House near the foot of the Glen at the end of Dumbrock Road in what is now known as “the horses’ field” but this was no grand abode. According to Alison Dryden’s local history “A Century of Change”, it was a two-storey building, commonly known as Thom’s House, which was divided into various small dwellings available for rent. There was no sanitation and water had to be fetched from a nearby spring. The proprietor was Sir Eric Buchanan of Craigend and it is likely that some of the tenants worked on his estate.
Before the war Daniel became a road surfaceman, employed by the Western District Committee, the equivalent of today’s local authority. District Committees had been formed under the Local Government (Scotland) Act of 1889 and were responsible for the maintenance of the regional road network. The Stirling region was divided three District Committees (Central, Eastern and Western). Western included the west Stirlingshire villages, which then included Campsie, Baldernock and New Kilpatrick.
Daniel volunteered soon after war was declared, when thousands were pouring into recruiting stations in response to a wave of patriotic fervour, stoked by the press. A short war and a glorious victory were the general expectations.
The Stirling Observer reported on October 10 that Daniel had left the previous Wednesday to start his training with the King’s Own Scottish Borderers in Berwick. In January 1915 he joined the thousand strong 2nd Battalion KOSB, which was already part of the British Expeditionary Force. In his book “The KOSB in the Great War”, Captain Stair Gillon described how in its journey through France to the front the battalion had been “feted all along the line in this new and beautiful country, loaded with fruit and flowers and benedictions…They rolled along towards the unknown in the intoxication of excitement” … and blissfully unaware of the hell awaiting them.
Second KOSB became part of 13th Brigade (circa 5,000 men), forming the infantry for the 5th Division (approximately 20,000 strong) alongside the 1st Battalion, The Queen’s Own Royal West Kent Regiment. These two brother battalions were to fight in unison throughout the war, facing unimaginable horrors together, thus creating an enduring bond and respect for one another.
The Stirling Observer reported that Daniel had been wounded on three separate occasions. The first notice was dated May 8 1915, which it was noted that Morrison was slightly injured and in hospital in France. This coincided with 2nd KOSB in action at St Julien. (It was part of the Second Battle of Ypres and, incidentally, the action in which two other men on the memorial, Jack Barr and Eric Yarrow, both lost their lives). On December 16 1916, under news of “Boys”, the newspaper noted Daniel was recovering at Stobhill Hospital back in Glasgow. In all probability this was a result of wounds suffered at 2nd KOSB’s last action of that year at the Battle of Morval in Northern France in late September. He was wounded a third time in May 1917, probably during the Third Battle of the Scarpe, part of the Arras offensive.
On this occasion, his battalion, having just relieved the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, faced a terrifying three and a half hour German bombardment which commenced at 2.00am on May 8. By the following day Daniel was one of 138 KOSB soldiers wounded, with 22 of his comrades killed. He was shipped back to England but again seems to have made a good recovery because on August 4 the Stirling Observer announced that Private Morrison was home on leave looking fit and well. It was the last time his friends and family would ever see him.
Upon his return to the front line, Daniel’s battalion was straight back into action in the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), which consisted of three “bite and hold” offensives launched by General Herbert Plumer’s Second Army to capture the Gheluvelt Plateau in the east of Ypres, near Zonnebeke.
The first two attacks, at Menin Road Bridge (September 20 to 25), and Polygon Wood (September 26 and 27) 1917, which both claimed the lives of men from the village, achieved their initial aims. It was hoped that the third would consolidate the success. This was to be the Battle of Broodseinde.
On the September 28, and as part of 5th Division, the 2nd KOSB was allotted to X Corps, now under the command of General Sir Thomas Morland. The main objective was the occupation of Broodseinde Ridge and the Gravenstafel spur. To the north of the line they were joined by four divisions of the Australian & New Zealand Army Corps (1st and 2nd ANZACs).
On the night of October 1 Daniel’s battalion, with 1st Royal West Kents on their right flank, began to prepare for an assault on Polderhoek or Goldfish Chateau. By this stage of the conflict it was reduced to nothing more than rubble, but still considered vital territory. The next day they relieved 70th Infantry Brigade, one mile west of Polderhoek, in an area coincidently christened Stirling Castle by the Allies.
As soon as they were in position, Daniel and his comrades, led by Lieutenant Colonel Cecil Furber, who was to receive the DSO during this action, were forced to endure a terrifying 24 hour barrage from the German Fourth Army. To compound their misery further, torrential rain fell on the eve of the attack. Stair Gillon described how “the rain soused our troops, swelled the ‘beeks’, and put shell-holes into good drowning condition”. Lieutenant Thomas Carlyle wrote of how “the utter physical and mental misery of toiling to covert a morass into a fort in the dark and wet was increased by a crashing barrage”. Not even Daniel’s road building and labouring skills could have made much difference in the slurry-filled terrain: as fast as they laid duckboard tracks, the Germans destroyed them.
Zero hour was 6 a.m. on October 4, with 2nd KOSB having already climbed silently out of their trenches during the night to a taped advance position in No Man’s Land. A heavy ground mist blanketed the area, greatly hindering progress. But as the battalion had experienced before, the Germans chose to attack ten minutes before them, stealing the initiative. Confusion reigned as the artillery of both sides began to pummel one another mercilessly. Communication between platoons was nigh impossible. Second KOSB lost contact, was counter-attacked and two companies were completely overwhelmed in this fog covered swamp. It was in these conditions that Daniel fell.
This action almost annihilated his battalion. Only 90 men made it back to safety, and as a result the battalion faced drastic reorganisation. However, they did achieve their objective, if such a term can accurately describe it. They dug in only 250 yards from Polderhoek Chateau and denied eight German counter-attacks through the nights of the October 5 and 6 before being relieved. Their sacrifice did contribute to an overall Allied victory at Broodseinde. October 4 1917 was recorded as a “black day” in the official German history of the war.
Lt Col Furber wrote afterwards: “I never want to go through another phase of war worse than that. It was horrible all through. The men were literally standing to their knees in water from the time they went into the line till they came out. The whole thing to me was a nightmare. The men were simply magnificent; how they stick some of the situations beats me, and they were so cheery through it all.”
Daniel’s body was never recovered, his grave “known only unto God”. His name is written on Panel 66-68 at Tyne Cot Memorial to the Missing, which forms the north-eastern boundary of Tyne Cot Cemetery, outside the town of Zonnebeke. The area was christened ‘Tyne Cottage’ by the Northumberland Fusiliers because the original German pill-boxes resembled typical Tyneside workers’ cottages.
The Memorial commemorates nearly 35,000 servicemen from the UK and New Zealand who were never found. Inscribed are the names of 326 soldiers from the KOSB regiment including Daniel and 74 others from 2nd KOSB, who were killed that day at Broodseinde. Posthumously, Daniel was awarded the 1914/15 Star as well as the Victory Medal and British War Medal. Cold comfort for poor Mary Jolly.
Daniel’s brief obituary in the Milngavie & Bearsden Herald described him as a man with “a quiet and retiring disposition” but one who “put his heart into whatever he took up”. As was common, the regimental chaplain wrote a letter of condolence to Daniel’s mother. Mary was still living at Dumbrock in 1923 when she died of cancer, aged 81.