2nd Reserve Battalion, Royal Naval Division
Henry Oscar Morshead (or Harry) was born in Gloucester on 17 January 1887. He was the son of James and Mary A Morshead. At the time of the 1901 Census the family lived at 6 St Luke’s Street, Gloucester and Henry, then aged 14, was a messenger for a fruiterer. His mother appears to have died in 1910 and by the time of the 1911 he was living with his father at 3 Raglan Terrace, Southgate Street, Gloucester and his occupation was given as ‘general labourer’ and his marital status as ‘single’.
On 5 December 1915 he joined the Army Reserve and transferred to the Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve, for the Royal Naval Division on 20 June 1917 and was posted to 2nd Reserve Battalion. He transferred onto the strength of the Command Depot on 1 September 1917. He did not see service overseas and was admitted to the RN Hospital at Haslar on 29 September 1917. The reason for this admittance is not entirely clear but was probably due to the ‘specific hepatitis’, which was the reason for his being invalided out of the Navy on 27 July 1918. Although the illness appears not to have been attributable to his naval service he was granted a place in the First World War military plot in Gloucester Old Cemetery, with a CWGC headstone, following his death in Gloucester on 12 November 1919, age 32.
The CWGC register records his parents being as being ‘James and C.R. Morshead’ and the address 218 Raglan Terrace, Southgate Street, Gloucester. His mother’s initials may be an error and it is possible that the family home had moved within Raglan Terrace, prior to the post war publication of the CWGC Register.
Researched by Graham Adams 11 July 2012