Born Hull, 1894. Son of John William Morley (1859-1910) and Eliza Waterson (1866-1905). Lived with his Grandmother, Sarah Ann Waterson, at 67 Waterloo Street, Hull. Worked as an apprentice shoeing smith (1911 Census)
John enlisted at Hull City Hall on Monday 7th September 1914, joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment which had begun recruiting that morning. It was the 2nd Hull Pals battalion, the 1st (10th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment) was nicknamed ‘The Commercials’ and was that day parading on Walton Street, home of Hull Fair, using sticks for rifles and dressed in their civilian attire, flat caps and overcoats for there were no uniforms or weaponry yet available to them. The 11th became known as ‘The Tradesmen’, men with Working Class jobs rather than the supposed Middle Class professions of the 10th. John was a veteran of Egypt, the Somme and Oppy Wood and it was the latter he was in front of when he was killed in action a little after 5pm on 28th June 1917, blown to smithereens by a sudden and ferocious enemy bombardment. His body was never recovered and his name is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.
His army effects were left to his widow, Elizabeth Denman, who he married at Hull, in 1915. She lived at 16 Gordon Terrace, Buckingham Street, Hull (Pension Address)
