ARTHUR WILLIAM MOREY
Coming from a family that had been resident in Portsmouth since before the 1840s Arthur William was descended from an engineer, a coachman and a publican. His father Albert and his grandfather William can be clearly identified from the census records but his great grandfather was one of two men both of whom made their living selling beer.
The options for the great grandfather are George Morey, the publican from 25 Frederick Street or Charles Morey, the beer retailer at the Hector's Arms at 63 Grosvenor Street. Both men had a son called William Morey, one born in 1836 and the other in 1837. Either way William left the family home in the 1850s when he married Lucy Stone and set up home at 21 Butcher Street. Lucy had been born at Pulborough in 1838.
In the 1861 census William was described as a groom, but this was just the beginning as over the next twenty years he rose to become the coachman to the Dockyard Superintendent Rear Admiral Loring and living above the stables in the Dockyard with Lucy and their two sons, William E. and Albert Thomas who had been born in 1859 and 1868 respectively.
None of the family have been located in the 1891 census and by the time the 1901 census came around the focus had fallen on William's son Albert Thomas who had married Kathleen Eliza Penn at Gosport in 1893. Kathleen, born in 1870, was the daughter of Naval Pensioner William Penn and his wife Eliza of Little Beach Street, Alverstoke. Albert and Kathleen settled into a life at 21 Bailey Road, off Somers Road, Southsea where their two children Hilda Kathleen and Arthur William were born in 1895 and 1897 respectively. Albert meanwhile was working in the Dockyard as an Engineer Pattern-Maker.
At the outbreak of the Great War Arthur William Morey was 18 years of age and therefore eligible to enlist when the first call for volunteers went out. At present it's not known whether he did so then or later but whenever he joined up he was assigned to the 1/6th Battalion, London Regiment which landed at Le Havre in March 1915. He took part in many battles but lost his life in October 1916.
FURTHER INFORMATION
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission list Rifleman Arthur W. Morey (6475), 1st/6th Battalion, London Regiment (City of London Rifles), died 08/10/1916. Commemorated on the Theipval Memorial, (Pier and Face 9 D.). Son of Albert Thomas and Kathleen Eliza Morey, of 26, Bailey Rd., Southsea, Hants.
Arthur Morey is also remembered on the Anglican Cathedral WW1 Memorial Cross, St. Peter's Church WW1 Memorial and on the Cenotaph. He is not listed in the 'National Roll of the Great War', Section X.
Tim Backhouse
November 2014