Morris Thomas William Pte. 4454468
Personnel Entry
Name Morris Thomas William
Army number 4454468
Rank Private.
Decorations None known beyond Service Awards.
Date of birth Born 9/12/1920.
Age 68 at the time of his death.
Unit Enlisted in The Durham Light Infantry. No exact enlistment date as yet, but his Regimental Number suggests Spring 1939. His Security Questionnaire showed 4/4/1939 (second version indicated 29/8/1939 which looked unlikely and may have been an embodiment date). Posted to the 8th Battalion DLI on enlistment. Posted to the 11th Bn DLI - probably 1/9/1939 on the embodiment of the Battalion. Served with the British Expeditionary Force in Northern France in early 1940. Taken Prisoner of War 27/7/1940 (some records, including his Military Intelligence Questionnaire - completed on 19/5/1945 - show 31/5/1940) near Lille. Returned to the UK at the end of hostilities. Posted to ? Battalion DLI. Discharged under King's Regulations 1940 Para 390 (xviii)A 21/1/1946. Re-Enlisted in The Durham Light Infantry J Group 28/5/1947.
Company/Battery HQ Company.
Platoon or other sub-unit Not yet known.
Task or role Probably Rifleman.
Joined Brigade Almost certainly 1/9/1939.
Promotions None as far as is known.
Wounded Not as far as is known.
Prisoner of War Held at Stalag XXA Thorn, Poland, from 6/6/1940 to 20/3/1941, then Stalag 20B - West Prussia - from 6/4/1941 to 20/1/1945 and finally Stalag 2A - New Brandenburg - from 25/3/1945 to 28/4/1945. Thomas also worked in a PoW Work Camp - at Marienburg - from 6/5/1941 to 6/3/1942 and from 28/3/1942 to 20/1/1945 - on farming duties. PoW Number 13101.
Died/Killed in action Actual date of death not yet known, but registered in September 1989 in Northumberland Central.
Home address No family details as yet.
Source table 11DLI
Thanks are due to Jim Tuckwell for drawing attention to a record in The National Archives, and for providing further information.
