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Howard Leopold Morry "Dad"
Morry beside the Morry Property Boundary
Stone, Dad Morry's father, Thomas Graham Morry, had to demolish that was left of the Holdsworth house about 1908 because it was no longer in a condition that it could be repaired. Dad Morry built his own house on the same foundations (see his account as submitted by Enid O'Brien and published in Newfoundland Ancestor 15:1).
Morry Home in Ferryland, likely in 1940s
Children of Howard Leopold Morry and Fredris
Minty
REMINISCENCES OF HOWARD MORRY
Dad Morry was a great diarist. He kept numerous books of memoirs all through his life, many of which have been lost or destroyed unfortunately. A few have fallen into good hands and have been preserved and in some cases transcribed. Jamie Morry, Dad Morry's grandson via son Howard (Slim), was one who cherished these reminiscences and who took the time to unravel the sometimes difficult to read handwriting and old-fashioned terminology to transcribe a certain amount of them. Since Jamie's untimely death, my brother Glen and I have taken up the challenge to complete the work Jamie started and I am working on Jamie's brothers Keith and Howie and our cousin Karen to do their part. Eventually everything we have will be recorded here for posterity. Its not so much that Dad Morry's life and times were all that remarkable but more that this represents a window into times and places that have now passed from the common view. Dad Morry's powers of observation and memory were also better than most and so these memoirs make interesting reading, not only to family, but to anyone with a curiosity about life in Newfoundland in those days, or the life of an ordinary soldier overseas in WWI, or for that matter the wanderings of a young man in the Canadian west before British Columbia even became a province of Canada. If these things interest you, read on! Diary from Dec 12, 1939 to January 4, 1940 (Including reminiscences of youth in Ferryland, travels in the Canadian west and WWI)
with Notes and Appendix by Glen and Chris Morry This is a heavily annotated transcription of Dad Morry's memoirs which focus on his time overseas in WWI. A great deal of effort was put into identifying with as much certainty as possible the individuals who figure in these war memoirs as there are excellent sources of information on the soldiers in the Royal Newfoundland Regiment online.
Letters from Dad Morry to his family These are letters written by Howard Morry to members of his family in his later years. They are recorded here, not because of any deep insights or new information they may contain, but simply for the interest of the family. If you are a family member and wish to have letters you received from Dad Morry recorded here please contact me via email ( cmorry@rogers.com ) to make arrangements for copying and transcribing. Letter from Ferryland: From Howard Morry to Tom & Evelyn Morry, March 1959 Letter from Ferryland: Howard Morry to Tom & Evelyn Morry, July 1959 Aerogramme from Scotland:
Howard Morry to Tom & Evelyn Morry, October 1971
THE WAR YEARS
Courtesy Howard Glendon Morry
"C" Company, 1st Battalion, Royal Newfoundland
Regiment at Enlistment
Howard Morry (Rear, 2nd from Right) and "C" Company Overseas
Fredris Minty and Howard Leopold Morry on their Wedding Day
Presented here is a letter from
Howard Morry to his father, Thomas Graham Morry, written while he was still in
training in the UK before shipping out for Egypt and then Gallipoli. Little did
he know when writing this the terrible events he would witness in the coming
months and years. Here is a copy of the pay records of Pvt. Howard L. Morry of "C" Company, 1st Newfoundland Regiment (Reg. No. 726), from August 17, 1915 until October 1, 1916. Receipt of pay was acknowledged and signed for by his father, Thomas G. Morry. This is a photocopy of pages 8 and 9 out of Dad Morry's field pay book. These two pages cover the days leading up to and following the fateful battle of Beaumont Hamel. The Officer signing for his pay up to the battle on July 1, 1916 was Capt. Reginald Rowsell. Capt. Rowsell was among the wounded at Beaumont Hamel and his replacement, Capt. James Donnelly, signed the pay book after that date. Capt. Rowsell was awarded the Military Cross for his actions. He died on the field of battle in Monchy, April 14, 1917. Capt. Donnelly also received the Military Cross for his bravery at Caribou Hill. The official statement of the London Gazette is as follows: “The Military Cross was awarded to Lieutenant J. J. Donnelly for conspicuous gallantry and determination on the night of the twenty-fifth of November, 1915, on the Gallipoli Peninsula. He occupied with eight men a knoll to which our firing line was extended the next day. By his coolness and skill in handling his small party, which was reduced to five by casualties, he repelled several determined Turkish bomb and rifle attacks on his front and flanks, and held his own during the night.” Capt. Donnelly also died on the field of battle, October 12, 1916.
NOTE: Because of the forced move of this website from Rogers server to a Yahoo server in February 2005, the following three video-clips are at least temporarily unavailable. Yahoo does not permit the use of WMV files on its servers. I apologise for this. If you should wish to have copies of the files simply email me directly( cmorry@rogers.com) and I will send you a copy via email.
"I Remain Your Loving Son" The following Windows Media video files were extracted from the CBC film "I remain your loving son", which is a touching remembrance of the events surrounding the Royal Newfoundland Regiment (the "Blue Puttees") in World War I. It deals especially with the campaigns in Gallipoli and Beaumont Hamel in which the Newfoundland Regiment paid the highest penalty imaginable for the distinctions they earned as a fighting force. In the battle of Beaumont Hamel, on July 1, 1916, a date that will always be considered "Remembrance Day" by Newfoundlanders, 801 soldiers entered battle; of these only 68 reported for roll call the following morning. The words in the film were taken from letters and memoirs written by the soldiers and their families. The voices are those of others as the soldiers themselves have all died now. Howard Morry's words have been extracted and combined to deal with his memories of enlistment, the first blood-letting at Gallipoli and the fateful battle of Beaumont Hamel, which he probably survived solely because he was a married man and therefore held back in reserve. These files can be downloaded and played in Windows Media Player or Real Player or, if you are using the latest Internet Explorer browser, (ver. 6.0) you can simply click on the highlighted text and a streaming video window will open and play without delay. View Howard Morry's reminiscences of enlisting (Windows Media Player file 1.6 MB) View Howard Morry's reminiscences of Gallipoli (Windows Media Player file 2.1 MB) View Howard Morry's
reminiscences of Beaumont
Hamel (Windows Media Player file 3 MB)
The following sound clips (WAV files) contain the voice of Howard Morry, recorded in Ferryland and St. John's respectively, as part of two CBC radio broadcasts which aired on Dec. 18, 1963 and February 21 1965. In these interviews he speaks of life in Ferryland in days gone by, both in his youth and in the early years of settlement. In the first sound clip he is joined by his children Elsie, Reg and Tom, who discuss their memories of Ferryland and express their regret at having to leave this life behind. In the second clip he explains how people looked after one another in small outport villages like Ferryland in the days before there was any form of government relief or welfare.
Hear Howard, Elsie, Reg and Tom Morry's reminiscences of Ferryland: Part 1(WAV file 7.6 MB) Part 2(WAV file 5.6 MB)
"Name a Town - Ferryland" Hear Howard Morry's reminiscences of neighbour helping neighbour (WAV file 2.3 MB)
Howard Morry - Memories of Ferryland, 1967 This is an article which appeared in The Evening Telegram,
"Folklore Papers Two and Three" by Joan Mary Wheeler
"3: Shipwrecks off the Newfoundland Southern Shore Coast: recollections by a resident of Ferryland" These two papers were submitted to her professor at Memorial University by Joan Wheeler in late November 1970. They were based on interviews conducted by her with Dad Morry earlier that month. Each can be viewed on screen by clicking the title or downloaded as MS Word files by right clicking the title and saving them to your hard disk. You can read Joan Wheelers introduction to these papers by clicking the first title -- "Folklore Papers Two and Three".
An excerpt from "The New Founde Land" by Farley Mowat Farley Mowat spent a good deal of time in the early 1960's at the Morry's in Ferryland while researching for several books he wrote on Newfoundland, including "The New Founde Land" (McLelland and Stewart, Inc. 1989). He writes of his encounters with Dad Morry, Uncle Bill, Aunt Pat, Peter and Paula. If you can cut through the bull (not always easy to do in Farley's writing), there are some interesting truths about Dad Morry in particular in this passage. Click on the title above to read this brief passage.
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