CAPTAIN WILLIAM MORRISON
ROYAL ARMY MEDICAL CORPS
23RD OCTOBER 1917 AGE 31
BURIED: DOZINGHEM MILITARY CEMETERY, POPERINGE, BELGIUM
Captain Morrison's Latin inscription comes from Horace's Ode 3.30. Horace claimed 'I shall not wholly die, non omnis moriar, because I have created a monument more lasting than bronze, and loftier than the pyramids, which neither time nor the weather will be able to diminish. Horace's monument was his poetry. Morrison's brother, Alexander, chose the inscription. For him his brother's immortality would rest on his war service.
William Morrison was born in 1886, the year after his father, who for 29 years had been the Free Church of Scotland minster in Boharm, Banffshire, died. Educated at Milne's Institute, a Free School in Fochabers, and Edinburgh University, Morrison joined the British East Africa Medical Service after graduating in 1909. He returned in March 1915 to take a temporary commission in the RAMC, serving with the 14th Field Ambulance.
Morrison spent two years at the Front except for a few months during the winter of 1916-17 when he was recovering from shell shock. This could be related to the MC he was awarded on 25 November 1916. The citation reads:
"For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. Although himself wounded, he tended and dressed the wounded under very heavy fire, displaying great courage and determination."
The 14th Field Ambulance was part of the 5th Division, which joined the Third Ypres offensive just before the Battle of Polygon Wood (26 September 1917). It took part in the battles of Broodseinde (4 October), Poelcapelle (9 October), First Passchendaele (12 October)and Second Passchendaele (20-22 October). Morrison died of wounds and gas poisoning on 23 October before the end of the offensive on 10 November.