At 92 years old, Clive Morriss reflects on the life and times of his father who fought in World War One
Clive Morriss can’t say for sure that the leather wallet in his father Fred’s breast pocket took the force from a bullet that saved his life during the war.
“But the family certainly believe it had something to do with it,” says Clive. “The bullet went through the heavy leather wallet, which had a photo of dad’s much-loved brother and other documents inside, and we think it took the sting out of it.”
The battle records show that Fred was a member of the 34th Reinforcements, Otago Infantry Regiment, D Company, which was part of the wider battle during which the New Zealand Rifle Brigade liberated the town of Le Quesnoy.
“It would seem that the company Fred was attached to took 74 German soldiers prisoner. In this action Fred was wounded at 7.30am on November 4. The gunshot was from a revolver so this would have been a close encounter in the fog and the smoke of the battle,” he says.
Fred was evacuated to the 1st South African Hospital at Abbeville for six weeks and then transferred to the New Zealand Hospital at Walton on the Thames, in England, before being discharged on January 17, 1919.
“The bullet was never removed from his chest and remained there until dad died at the age of 83 on 8th February 1981.”
And the wallet lives on today with his grandson Wayne. It has been turned into a fishing wallet for holding trout flies by Clive’s brother Allan.
Memory still sharp
Clive is recounting his father’s story from the Summerset Retirement Village in Christchurch. He has enjoyed sharing historical information and anecdotes about his father.
He also sent a number of emails before and after our interview with detailed information about Fred’s life during and after the war.
Lance Corporal Frederick William Morriss – service number 64913 – arrived in Liverpool as part of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade on March 29, 1918. Eight months later, he was in Le Quesnoy.
“Fortunately, dad was only on the Western Front for a short time so avoided the mud and mayhem that so many of our New Zealand soldiers suffered.”
Going by his war records Fred was a marksman, and Clive thinks he may have been part of a Lewis Gun Team.
“Many soldiers from New Zealand came from the country and in their leisure times they shot rabbits, so they were pretty adept using a rifle and becoming soldiers.”
In 2012, Clive and his son Wayne spent a week touring the Western Front including visiting Le Quesnoy.
“Visiting the town was important to us because Fred was wounded there, and Wayne and I were able to walk over the same ground he did. We were aware, because he was wounded early on the 4th of November, that Fred would not have walked inside the walled town of Le Quesnoy.”
The NZ Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata was yet to open at the time of their visit but in 2024, Clive’s second son Grant and his wife visited Le Quesnoy and the museum.
Life on the farm
On returning home after the war, Fred worked as a farm labourer, and in 1923 took up a 99-acre leasehold farm at Lyndford under the Discharged Soldiers Settlement Act 1915. Sadly, his first wife died of tuberculosis after only a year of marriage.
In 1927 Fred remarried Mary Dell and Clive was born in 1932 followed by his brother Allan three years later.
“We were very lucky the way we were brought up. I don’t believe we suffered from the hard times our parents were having. Of course we were unaware how tough it was for them and so many of the country’s population during that economic slump period.
“For our parents it was very much a subsistence living on the small farm. Under the conditions of their leasehold repayments, it became increasingly impossible for them to meet their commitments.”
To address this issue, Fred took his case to Court where it was recommended another farm be found for the family. Fred and Mary surrendered their Lyndford farm in September 1938 and moved to a 200-acre farm on the Riverina Settlement at Rakaia.
They sold their horse team and took delivery of a new Marshal M tractor. Later, the adjoining 200-acre farm became available, and Fred was able to lease this property also.
From the late 1940’s onwards, farming income from stock and wool improved greatly. “This prosperity was to benefit the whole country,” says Clive, “and Fred was able to freehold the property.”
“After driving a 1926 Overland they bought a new Standard car in 1949. They had worked hard, and they were happy where they were. It also meant they were able to live a more comfortable and enjoyable life.”
Good genes
The Morriss’ genes have helped Clive reach his 90s, but he says, keeping active throughout his life has contributed. He enjoyed his job of 40 years working in the stock and station industry, followed by another 14 years with part time work.
He has been able to enjoy fishing, golfing and tramping, which, smiles Clive, was very much “held together by my wonderful wife, Eileen”.
Travelling to Le Quesnoy was inspiring. “I regret now that I hadn’t talked much to Dad about his war experiences, but probably like most returned soldiers he would prefer to forget about the experience. I’m fortunate that I’ve been on our trip around the Western Front. It was distressing to see tens of thousands of names of soldiers on memorials and grave stones that had lost their lives in the war. It has fired up my memory and that’s the sort of thing that keeps you alive.”
By coincidence, when Clive’s wife Eileen was at St Helen’s Women’s Hospital in Christchurch in 1965 having Wayne, Clive met Dr Leslie Averill, the first Kiwi soldier to famously scale the walls of Le Quesnoy by ladder.
“After the war Dr Averill had a wonderful medical career and at that time was in charge at St. Helen’s. Eileen was having a difficult birth so was admitted. It was Dr. Averill who came to the waiting room to tell me it had been a forceps birth and I had a son.”
Wayne, who has just turned 60 years old, followed a medical career and is an Anaesthetist at the Christchurch Hospital and past President of the World Federation of Anaesthesiologists.
Clive and Eileen’s second son, Grant, works with Landcare Research as a Senior Technician for Pest Eradication.
“Their grandfather would have been very proud of their activities.”
One of Clive’s grandsons is now in the Army. Clive recently went to Burnham Military Camp with Jacqui his daughter in law, to see his grandson at an event where the Governor General was presenting the New King’s Colour and New Regimental Colour to the 2nd / 1st Battalion of the Royal New Zealand Infantry Regiment.
“It was a very smart and colourful parade,” says Clive.
He reflects on his own time in the 1950s as an 18-year-old where he spent 14 weeks at Burnham doing Compulsory Military Training. “Coming off a farm where there was plenty of shooting and hunting, I really enjoyed the Army experience,” he says.
“All of what has happened in my life,” he reflects, “goes back to the fact that Dad was one of the lucky ones who lived and got to come home.”
