Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Four: Corporal G. Morton, Royal New Zealand Artillery (N.Z.E.F.), late Devonshire Regiment, who was wounded in Gallipoli in September 1915

Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 4 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, South Africa 1902 (6534 Pte. G. Morton, 2-Devon R.), an official replacement issue, circa 1930; 1914-15 Star (2/193 Cpl. G. Morton, N.Z.E.F.); British War and Victory Medals (2/193 Cpl. G. Morton, N.Z.E.F.), generally good very fine (4) £240-280

George Morton was born in Gosport, Hampshire in August 1883 and attested for the Devonshire Regiment at Fort Regent, Jersey in January 1901. He subsequently saw active service with the 2nd Battalion in South Africa (Queen’s Medal & 4 clasps), and was discharged in July 1913.

Having then enlisted in the New Zealand Permanent Force at Wellington later in the same year, he was enrolled in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in August 1914. Embarked for the Dardanelles in April 1915, as an Acting Corporal in 2nd Brigade, Royal New Zealand Artillery, he shortly thereafter came ashore in Gallipoli, where he was wounded in the hip and backside on 2 September 1915 and evacuated to Mudros.

Having then rejoined his unit in the Field at the end of November 1915, he appears to have suffered from shell shock and epilepsy and was discharged as medically unfit for further service in May 1916. In January of the latter year, Lieutenant-Colonel F. B. Sykes, C.O. of 2nd Brigade, R.N.Z.A., wrote to Morton in the following terms:

‘I made enquiries and saw people as to the possibility of you staying on, but when the doctors have made up their minds, we can do nothing. I am very sorry that you are not going to be with us, as from the time that I first had you as H.Q. Signaller on Plugge’s Plateau at the beginning, in April or May, until your wound in Wilson’s Gully in October (sic), you have carried out your duties as a signaller, and later as an N.C.O. well, and to my entire satisfaction. And you have shown yourself to be a good soldier, sober, steady, and reliable. Trust that your trouble is only temporary, and that a complete rest and good food in New Zealand will put you all right again. In the meantime I hope you will get some good civil employment, until fit enough to come back and do more fighting if it is necessary. You are at liberty to use this letter as a reference or to write to me for a character reference later if you require one.’

Official records reveal that Morton was admitted to a mental asylum on his return to New Zealand; Notwithstanding his ill-health, the same records reveal that he attempted to re-enlist in early 1917, presumably without success; sold with copied N.Z. attestation and service papers, including correspondence in respect of him claiming his replacement Boer War Medal in 1929.