Basil Moorhouse Morris CBE DSO (1888 - 1975)

Ancestors

Biography

Major General Basil Morris CBE DSO was an Australian Army officer. He served in both the First and Second World Wars. In 1942, he was the Australian military administrator at Port Moresby when the Imperial Japanese Army began their advance along the Kokoda Track after the invasion of Buna-Gona and successfully delayed the Japanese advance until units of the Second Australian Imperial Force arrived.

Basil Moorhouse Morris was born on 19th December 1888 at East Melbourne, Victoria (Australia). He was the third son and ninth of eleven children of English-born William Edward Morris and Indian-born Clara Elizabeth French.^[1] Basil's father was registrar of the Anglican Diocese of Melbourne. William Morris was his elder brother. Their maternal grandfather was Major John French and their uncle was (Sir) John French. Basil attended Melbourne Church of England Grammar School and spent one year at the University of Melbourne before joining the Melbourne Cavalry. He was commissioned into the Royal Australian Artillery on 1st December 1910 and served in coastal defence establishments.

Morris volunteered for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) after the commencement of the First World War. He saw action on the Western Front from February 1916 with 55th Heavy Artillery Battery and was transferred in November 1917 to the headquarters of the 5th Divisional Artillery as a staff Captain. Promoted Major, he took command of the 114th Howitzer Battery in September 1918. For his leadership, Morris was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) and was Mentioned in Despatches three times. Morris was discharged from the AIF after the war and returned to Australia in 1919.^[2] He chose to remain a professional soldier and transferred to the Staff Corps. He held a number of staff positions for the next twenty years.

On 27th August 1921 he married Audrey Lewis Cogan in St Luke's Church of England, Christchurch, New Zealand.^[3]

Following staff positions in the Middle East and Ceylon (Sri Lanka) with the 2nd Australian Imperial Force's 6th Division,^[4] in 1941 he was appointed commandant of the 8th Military District, which covered the Australian administered Territory of Papua - a military backwater if any post could be. With Japanese bombing of Port Moresby in January 1942 many of the civil administration evacuated Papua. Morris immediately established the Australian New Guinea Administration Unit (ANGAU) which would continue to run the territory. Following news of the Japanese landings on the north coast at Buna and Gona, he despatched the Papuan Infantry Battalion and, later, the militia 39th Battalion to guard Kokoda and its airfield. Although the troops were largely ill-equipped and scarcely trained, the timing was fortuitous. They would fight for time whilst the professionals (so called), the Australian Imperal Force 7th and 6th Divisions arrived. Once they arrived, he was quite happy to relinquish the responsibilies of commander of New Guinea forces and concentrate on the New Guinea Lines of Communication Area and ANGAU for the rest of the war.

Morris retired from the army on 19th October 1946 and the following year was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

He passed away on 5th April 1975 at Upper Beaconsfield, Victoria.^[5] He was survived by his wife, Audrey, and the couple's five daughters.

Sources

1. ↑ Victoria Birth Index #5225/1889
2. ↑ Australian_War_Memorial_Nominal_Roll:_Basil_Morris; accessed 12 Jun 2018
3. ↑ New Zealand Marriage Index #7786/1921
4. ↑ Australian_War_Memorial_Nominal_Roll:_Basil_Morris; accessed 12 Jun 2018
5. ↑ Victoria Death Index #8152/1975

• Sweeting, A J. Morris, Basil Moorhouse (1888–1975). Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 2000, accessed online 12 June 2018.
• Wikipedia:_Basil_Morris; accessed 12 Jun 2018.