Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Private J. Morris, Grenadier Guards

1914 Star (12554 Pte. J. Morris. 1/G. Gds.); British War and Victory Medals (12554 Pte. J. Morris. G.Gds.) mounted as worn, heavy staining to obverse of VM, good fine, the remainder very fine (3) £100-£140

James Morris enlisted in the Grenadier Guards on 25 August 1903 and served in France with the 1st Battalion from 12 November 1914. Heavily engaged at the First Battle of Ypres as part of 20th Infantry Brigade, the Battalion spent December 1914 constantly engaged in digging and improving the trench network of the Western Front. According to The Grenadier Guards in the Great War of 1914-1918:

‘The water-logged conditions of the ground, combined with the vigilance of the German snipers, made the work difficult. The bombing and shelling continued daily, and were accompanied occasionally by high-explosive shells... On one of the visits which the Prince of Wales paid to the 1st Battalion, he narrowly escaped one of these shells, which exploded outside the house he was in.’

Morris survived the Battles of Neuve Chapelle and Loos in 1915, but his health began to suffer over the winter of 1915-16 and he was discharged due to sickness on 22 April 1916.