Francis St. Vincent Morris
One of the lesser known poets of the Great War, Francis Morris was born in Ashbourne in February 1896. When the war began he was at Brighton College and in 1915 he was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 3rd (Reserve) Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters. However he soon transferred to the Royal Flying Corps and joined No. 3 Squadron in France in early April 1917. Like so many young pilots his career was tragically short. After a matter of days his plane crashed during a snow storm near Vimy Ridge. He sustained two broken legs, one of which subsequently had to be amputated. On the 29th April he underwent a second surgical operation during which he died. He was 21 years old. 2nd Lt Morris was buried at St Sever Cemetery, Rouen.
A book of his poetry was published in 1917, 'The Poems of Francis St. Vincent Morris' (B.H. Blackwell, Oxford, 1917).