Arthur Cecil's Story.
Trooper Arthur Cecil Morris, 5th Company, Imperial Yeomanry, regimental number 1221, died of enteric fever at Kroonstad, on July 8, 1900. He was 22 years old. He is buried in North Road Cemetery, Kroonstad, South AfricaWhat do we know about Arthur?
Arthur Cecil Morris (Cecil or Cis to his friends) was born in Leominster, Herefordshire on 30th May 1878. His parents were John and Sophia nee Evans, and he was brother to John Francis, Percy Ernest, Clifford Argall, Hugh and Violet. He grew up in Breconshire, Wales but by April 1891 was living with his widowed mother and his siblings at 40 Adelaide Avenue, Crewe. On 28th February 1894, when he was 15, Arthur joined the London and North Western Railway Company. His occupation was machinist.
He enlisted into the Imperial Yeomanry on 4th January 1900, aged 21 years and 7 months, and was sent to Orange Free State in South Africa, where he died just six months later of typhoid in Kroonstad. He was 22.
A letter home from Trooper R. Oakley, also of the Imperial Yeomanry, told of Arthur’s final illness:
"The last day we were together was the 31st of May when we went under Lord Methuen to try to relieve the Duke of Cambridge's Own and the lrish Yeomanry and we fought one of the hardest fights that have taken place in the Orange River Colony. The fight lasted from daylight to dark and although "Cis" Morris was a long way from well, he fought like a Briton and we were close together all day. He had been gradually weakening for some time and that day completely knocked him up. The column took three days rest, but he was unable to come on with us when we moved away in pursuit of De Wet. I shall never forget him saying "Good-bye" to me that morning. He was fairly broken down and tears stood in his eyes as we shook hands. The next news I got was from home asking me it was true he was dead. I failed to learn anything definite until by chance, met the very fellow who nursed him right through his sickness. He had fallen victim to that terrible scourge, enteric.”
Arthur was buried at North Road Cemetery, Kroonstad. Later that year, the employment records of "Men Left Discharges or Transferred" at L&NWRC were updated to show his death in South Africa.
Compiled by S. Lewington 2025
Acknowledgements to “From Crewe to the Cape” by Mark Potts, Tony Marks and Howard Curran for much of this information.