Morgan David, Cheshire Regiment, 1st/6th Battalion

Private Morgan David, Cheshire Regiment, 1^st/6^th Battalion

Morgan David was born in 1894 in Aberdare, the son of Morgan Richard David, a baker, and Catherine Jane Evans.

Early Life and Family Background

1901 Census

The 1901 Census records the David family living at The Grange, Lewis Street, Aberdare. Morgan Richard, aged 47, was working as a baker, while his wife Catherine, aged 45, managed the household. Their children present were William E., employed as a brewer; Margaret, aged 20; and Morgan, then 7 years old. The household also included two servants—Elizabeth A. David, 18, and Elizabeth Jones, 21—reflecting the family’s comfortable standing in the community.

1911 Census

Following the death of Morgan Richard David in 1905, the 1911 Census shows Catherine, now a widow aged 55, still residing with her family at The Grange, Lewis Street, Aberdare. Living with her were her daughters Margaret, 30, and Bessie, 22, along with her son Morgan, then 17, who was employed as a Mining Engineer Pupil, indicating a promising technical career ahead. Two servants remained in the household: Annie Haines, 18, and Gertrude Maud James, 16.

Military Service

Morgan enlisted to serve in the First World War and became a Private in the Cheshire Regiment, 1^st/6^th Battalion, a Territorial Force battalion that formed part of the 118th Brigade, 39th Division. By 1917 the battalion had already seen heavy fighting on the Western Front and would soon be committed to one of the most devastating offensives of the war.

The Cheshire Regiment, 1^st/6^th Battalion on 31^st July 1917

On 31^st July 1917, the opening day of the Third Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), the 1^st/6^th Cheshires took part in the major British assault aimed at breaking through German lines east of Ypres. The battalion advanced under extremely difficult conditions: relentless German machine-gun fire, heavy artillery bombardments, and ground already churned by days of rain and shelling. The landscape quickly deteriorated into deep, clinging mud that hindered movement and made communication and evacuation of the wounded perilously slow.

Despite these challenges, the battalion pressed forward with determination, capturing initial objectives but sustaining heavy casualties in the process. It was during this intense fighting—marked by confusion, constant shellfire, and fierce German resistance—that Private Morgan David was killed in action.

Death and Commemoration

Private Morgan David fell on 31^st July 1917, aged 23. Like so many soldiers lost on the first day of the Passchendaele offensive and whose bodies were never recovered, he has no known grave. His name is commemorated with honour on the Menin Gate Memorial, Ypres, which records the missing of the Ypres Salient.