John Morrison is buried in France and the lead letters on the family gravestone are barely readable. In his Army record, a terse line describes the injuries which killed him: "Died of wounds, (sh wounds, arms + abdomen) 11.5, CC Stat. July 16 1916."
It was shortly after their arrival in France - after something of a delay involving an invasion of Turkey - that the Otago Regiment attempted its first sizeable trench raid on German positions opposite "In accordance with the promulgated policy of aggressiveness and general scheme of raiding" as reported in the Otagos' Official History:
During the afternoon the enemy had carried out a certain amount of artillery fire which had all the appearances of a ranging shoot. The misgivings and suspicions aroused in not a few minds by this action were later only too fully confirmed. Every man was in his position in No Man's Land at the appointed time, and the artillery support was forthcoming as arranged. But no sooner had our barrage lifted and the raiding troops proceeded to move forward than a concentrated and murderous shrapnel and machine gun fire fell like a thunder-clap over No Man's Land between our front line and the objective. Under this withering and devastating blast the raiders vainly endeavoured to press forward. The casualties became increasingly heavy; all the officers were either killed or wounded, and when finally the order came to withdraw, merely a handful of men remained to stagger back to our lines. The whole affair was a tragedy; and though no definite information could, of course, be obtained on the point, the natural conclusion come to was that the enemy had secured warning of the raid, and the 4th Company walked into a trap only too well prepared.
The "murderous shrapnel" took many victims, one of whom was John Morrison.
Andersons Bay Cemetery, Dunedin.
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