PRIVATE DONALD ANGUS MORRISON
CANADIAN INFANTRY
8TH MAY 1915 AGE 27
BURIED: BOULOGNE EASTERN CEMETERY, FRANCE
I find this kind of inscription so interesting: interesting because it's not the the sort of thing people usually say on headstones; interesting because it was Morrison's father who confirmed it, and interesting because I can't think what it really means. What is obvious, however, is that David Morrison loved his mother and that his father was happy to confirm this on his son's headstone.
David Morrison was a police constable in Roberta, Nova Scotia. He enlisted in September 1914 and arrived in France with the first Canadian Contingent on 12 February 1915. He died of wounds in hospital at Boulogne three months later on 8 May.
Morrison served with the 16th Battalion Canadian Infantry, the Canadian Scottish, which was involved in the action on 22-23 April at Gravenstafel Ridge. It was here that the Germans first successfully used chlorine gas along a four mile section of the line held by French colonial troops. The French suffered something in the region of 6,000 casualties. Without knowing what had happened, the Battalion War Diary reported, "French refugees, pouring in and French soldiers principally Zoaves in flight. Looked as if French had been routed ... We were to check the German advance". The writer finished the report of the day by concluding that it had been 'a very arduous time' and by referring to the 'many wounded and dead'. This could have been when Morrison was wounded.