Second-Lieutenant Joseph Morris, the last Bury Grammar School old boy to die in action in the First World War. Joseph Morris came from Gigg Lane in Bury. His father was the headmaster of St. Chad’s Primary school which he attended before winning a Lancashire County Council scholarship to attend Bury Grammar School, following his two older brothers William and Robert. He spent eight years at BGS, becoming Sergeant-Major( Senior Cadet) of the Officer Training Corps (now CCF). All three brothers enlisted in the Lancashire Fusiliers on leaving school. Lieutenant William Morris was severely wounded during the battle of the Somme on September 25th 1916 and was still in hospital in Cambridge at the end of the war. Lieutenant Robert Morris was also badly injured in July 1917. The third brother, Joseph, enlisted in the army in February 1918 just as Robert was receiving a medical discharge. Joseph was commissioned as an officer on his 19th birthday, 16th August 1918. He sailed for France on 12th October, after a day’s home leave. He was posted to C Company, 16th Battalion Lancashire Fusiliers (2nd Salford Pals), part of the British 32nd Division. As part of the ‘Grand Slam’ attack planned for 4th November 1918, which it was hoped would end the war, 32nd Division was given the hardest job of any British unit: the assault crossing of the Sambre-Oise canal. However, no crossing could be attempted before the vital Happergabes Spur, which overlooked both banks of the canal, was captured. This job was given to 15th Lancashire Fusiliers (1st Salford Pals) on 2nd November but they suffered heavy casualties and were driven back. B and C Companies of the 2nd Salford Pals were sent as reinforcements before another attempt was made the next day. It appears from his obituary in the Bury Times that Joseph Morris was fatally wounded in the attack on 3rd November. His batman (soldier servant) wrote to his parents on 9th November that ‘by his coolness and bravery he was urging his men on...We had been in action two hours, when the Germans were sending big shells over, and I am sorry to say that your brave and gallant son was killed by one of these awful shells, which struck him on the left side of the forehead.’ Joseph Morris was taken to a field hospital but died a few hours later. He was buried at the nearby Pommereuil British Cemetery. He was the last Bury Grammar School to die in action in the First World War. His parents later paid to have the school motto ‘Sanctas Clavis Fores Aperit’ inscribed on his headstone.

Paul Morris