RQMS David Morris

Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant David Morris of the 11th Parachute Battalion, standing alongside Field Marshal Montgomery and holding the Torch of Peace in 1945/46. Morris took part in the fighting around the Oosterbeek Perimeter and was taken prisoner on Sunday 24th September 1944. He is shown here being escorted away from the area. Taken to the St Elizabeth Hospital, he gave a blood transfusion to Brigadier Hackett, who was posing as a corporal to increase his prospects of escape. Loaded aboard a train bound for Germany, Morris escaped and was sheltered by the Dutch Resistance, but was recaptured during the ill-fated Pegasus II operation; the mass evacuation of British evaders across the Rhine. He was sent to Stalag VIIIC at Sagan where he met CSM Gatland of "S" Company. The pair participated in the infamous Long March away from the Eastern Front in early 1945, and ended up at Stalag IXB at Bad Orb, where they were eventually liberated. Copyright: Frank Bradshaw.