Morrison, Frederick Armand (Armand)
Leading Aircraftman
No. 522580, 210 Squadron, Royal Air Force
Killed in action on Tuesday 9 April 1940 (aged 30)
Buried:
Sylling Churchyard, Norway (Grave 6)
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Newtownards and District War Memorial
Newtownards Parish Church of Ireland Church (St. Mark’s)
Family grave headstone in Movilla Cemetery, Newtownards
BIOGRAPHY
Frederick Armand Morrison was born on 30 June 1909 in the townland of Mount Stewart, Greyabbey and he was the second son of Frederick Armand Morrison and Hannah Maria Morrison (nee Snow) of Mount Stewart, Greyabbey, Co. Down. He was a nephew of Mr and Mrs James Morrison of Greenbank Villas, Newtownards.
Frederick Armand Morrison and Hannah Maria Snow were married on 17 October 1906 in Kells Parish Church of Ireland Church, Co Meath. Frederick Armand Morrison, a schoolteacher from Mount Stewart, Co Down was a son of John Morrison. Hannah Maria Snow from Kells, County Meath was a daughter of James Snow, a clerk.
Frederick Armand Morrison Senior taught in Mount Stewart School until it closed in the 1920s. He and Hannah had at least three children:
Roland Haslam (born 19 January 1908 in Mount Stewart)
Frederick Armand (born 30 June 1909 in Mount Stewart)
James Victor (born 13 September 1917 in Mount Stewart)
Roland Morrison worked for the Ministry of Labour and lived at The Cliff, Larne. During the Second World War James Victor Morrison served with the Royal Artillery in the British Expeditionary Force and after the war he worked for the Ministry of Finance. Armand Morrison joined the Royal Air Force around 1935. He was home on leave at Easter 1940 and he spent part of the time at Kiltonga, Newtownards with Mr and Mrs W.C. McRoberts whose daughter was Roland Morrison’s wife.
Armand Morrison had his gunner’s badge and during the Second World War he served with the Royal Air Force in Coastal Command. On 9 April 1940 he was one of a crew of ten aboard a Short Sunderland Mark I aircraft (L2167). They took off at 1.00 pm from RAF Invergordon in Scotland and their mission was to carry out reconnaissance in the Oslo area of Norway. Their plane was shot down by a German Messerschmitt aircraft and nine of the crew were killed. Sergeant O.F. George, who was blown out of the aircraft at 3,000 feet without a parachute, fell into deep snow and was taken Prisoner-of-War. In addition to Leading Aircraftman Frederick Armand Morrison the other crew members who died that day were:
- Flight Lieutenant Peter William Hansford Kite (aged 20) from Middlesex
- Sergeant Jack Clifford Carpenter (aged 28) from Sydney, Australia
- Pilot Officer Arthur Francis le Maistre (aged 26) from Winnipeg, Canada
- Sergeant James Alan Llewellyn Barter (aged 21)
- Leading Aircraftman Douglas William Bailey Upham from Bexley, Kent
- Aircraftman First Class Graham Herbert Maile
- Aircraftman First Class Robert Lawrence Millar from Limavady, Co. Londonderry
- Aircraftman Second Class George Eveson (aged 29) from Glamorgan, Wales.
All nine were buried in Sylling Churchyard, Norway. There is an inscription on his CWGC headstone:
HIS SUN WENT DOWN
WHILE IT WAS YET DAY
Leading Aircraftman Frederick Armand Morrison (No. 522580) was 30 when he was killed and he is commemorated on Newtownards and District War Memorial; in Newtownards Parish Church of Ireland Church (St. Mark’s) and on the family grave headstone in Movilla Cemetery, Newtownards. His mother died on 22 September 1922 and his father died on 23 March 1932 (aged 57) at 180 Greenwell Street, Newtownards.