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Letters
History of Commander JC "Copper" Morrow Dear Mr. Gregory My name is Melanie Comito, I am a Voluntary Instructor with the Australian Naval Cadet Unit, TS Morrow based in Geraldton, Western Australia. I was seeking to explore the history of Commander JC Morrow, after whom >our unit is named when I came across your Weblog and was wondering if you would have another other memories of Commander Morrow, other than that listed in your entry of the invasion of Japan. I do appreciate what time you may have to spare, I've long been a believer that too much of the knowledge of our previous generations is lost unnecessarily, so I guess my research into Commander Morrow serves two purposes ; one to provide my cadets with knowledge and two, to ensure that the life, lessons and experiences of such a man does not go un-heard. Many thanks for your time Regards
I will be pleased to let you have what I can find on Commodore James Cairns Morrow, he was a wonderful seaman and Naval Officer. In HMAS Shropshire, I was his Mate Of the Upper Deck as a Lieutenant RAN, over 1944/45. This meant I organised the work of all our seamen under his direction and ran the Commander's Office. I have been away in New Zealand and just came home last night, and will be in touch again with you soon. Regards, Good evening Mac
Melanie, The Commodore was always called Copper Morrow from his sandy coloured hair. In this instalment I have copied his entry from the History of the Royal Australian Naval College by F.B. Eldridge. Published Georgian House Melbourne. 1949. A limited Edition of 750 copies. ( one of which I own ) Morrow, James Cairns ( K.M.) D.S.O. D.S.C. ( K.M. stands for King's Medallist, meaning he was the awarded this medal being judged the best Cadet in his 4th. and final year at the Naval College, a high honour.) I am sure you are aware the DSO stands for the award of the Distinguished Service Order, and DSC stands for the award of the Distinguished Service Cross. He was born at Melbourne 6 February 1905, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. E. Morrow of Blackburn, Melbourne, entered the College in 1919. He was made Cadet Captain in 1920, and Chief Cadet Captain in 1921, and gained his colours for cricket and rugby. On Passing out he was awarded the King's Medal. He became a Midshipman 15 May 1923, Sub-Lieutenant in 1926, Lieutenant in 1928, Lieutenant Commander in 1936, and Commander in 1940. His first ship was HMAS Adelaide in 1923, and eight years later he served as a Year Officer at R.A.N.C. In 1938 he was appointed in command of HMAS Voyager, a command he held until 1941, when he went to HMAS Arunta in command. He was awarded the D.S.O. in September 1940 for courageous enterprise and devotian to duty, was Mentioned in Despatches for inshore co-operation with the Army in Cyrenaica, and was awarded the D.S.C. in August 1942 for sinking a Japanese Submarine. In October 1943 he was appointed Commander ( D ) at Sydney and in January of the following year Commander ( D ) Milne Bay. He became Executive Officer of HMAS Shropshire in May 1945, a position he held when hostilities terminated a few months later. Promoted to Captain in 1947. Some personal comments anon.
Hello again Mac, Has anyone told you you're amazing :) Thankyou :) Definitely a wonderful start. Talk with you, Melanie
Good evening once again Mac
Regards,
Melanie,
A bit more about my Commander,
Shropshire was anchored in Subic Bay in the Philippines. I had become quite run down, I had been either at sea or overseas in UK since August 1939. In fact I was in our sick bay with a whitelow ( an internal boil ) in my left thumb, it was agonising, penicillin was new, and I was having 4 hourly injections in my bum, they were icecold, and it was very painful. I sat watching the clock slowly tick off the hours until the next injection came due. I had lost about 2 stone, and our Captain doing rounds stopped by my bed, said who is this? "Lieutenant Gregory" said the Chief SBA, "my God!" he said, I didn't recognise you, get better soon, or we will have to ship you home, that sounded good, then I was sent off to a British Hospital ship Oxfordshire, where my thumb was lanched etc.
Hospital Ship Oxfordshire, 1912 The ship was ghastly, the head doctor was on with one of the nurses, and now the atomic bombs were dropped on Japan, and they gave up. I was worried that the ship would suddenly be sent off to Japan, and sail without me, with the war now over, I did not want to go home, and possibly miss out on going to Japan, as we were the Flagship, there was every possibilty that the ship would represent the RAN at any signing of the peace. I sent a desperate note off to Copper, saying, Sir, for God's sake get me back to the ship, do not sail without me PLEASE!! The Commander reacted quickly, sending over a boat with a letter to the DR. in charge, indicating I had to be returned back to Shropshire. With a great sigh of relief, I climbed up the ladder to the quarterdeck, to run straight into a VJ party, we had the only grog of any ship, as the US Navy is dry. Someone had dredged up some very senior nurses, and the party was in full swing. I reported to the Commander, said my thanks, to be greeted with Who are those 2 Lieutenant's ( E ) that is engineering, with their caps still on.? I said perhaps they are RN, they are not ours Sir. Get them to take off their caps Copper ordered. I did just that, to find their heads were shaven, and in fact they were 2 of our stokers, they had got into their Divisional Officers Cabins, pinched 2 uniforms, and gate crashed the Wardroom party on the quarterdeck. Their game now up, I told them to return the uniforms, and disappear. On reporting to the Commander, he said: Put them in my report for stealing a uniform, and impersonating an officer, I will see them at defaulters tomorrow. Two very serious charges, and see their Divisional Officers know about this, and have them at my Defaulter Table in the morning., to defend their stokers. This, I of course did. The next morning, up they came together, were charged, and asked what they had to say, not much I am afraid. The Commander asked if they knew how such a party was paid for, of course they had no idea, well, said Copper, it is on a stripe basis, 10 pounds a stripe, the Captain paid 40 pounds, I paid 30 pounds, and Lieutenant Gregory paid 20 pounds. Both of you will pay 20 pounds to the Wardroom Mess Secretary today. Did you enjoy yourselves? Yes Sir!! Well, case dismissed, uttered with a big grin from the Commander. Two very relieved stokers I might add, as they were indeed in big trouble. This case made the press back home, some one leaking the story to the Sydney papers. But that was the sort of man our Commaner Morrow was. When up in Tokyo waters, we had borrowed a landing craft from the Yanks with a drop down ramp, for taking a large number of our libertymen ashore each run. At night it was secured astern on a 6 inch grass line, we had an awful cyclone sweep through the area, and it was so bad we in fact were steaming to the two anchors we had down, to stop us dragging. Some of the US ships had shut down their boilers, and they were dragging their anchors as they drifted past us. The next morning, our landing craft sunk, at the bottom of its mooring line, which had to be cut. The Commander told me to go get another landing craft, well Sir I said that is no easy task, use your initiative said Copper, but get another one. I grabbed two bottles of Scotch Whiskey from the Wardroom, wrapped them up, their value at that time duty free about 40 cents each. I gathered two Petty Officers, we took a boat and made for the nearest moored landing craft. On arrival, I said to the sergeant in charge, what about a landing craft, oh that's hard he responded, Well I said, what about a bottle of Scotch. Christ! he said, you can take a spare engine as well, that I didn't want, but, I have a second bottle of Scotch, and I want a jeep for that. That's very difficult, give me the second bottle, and I will see what I can do. I was not that stupid, get the jeep, then you will get the next bottle. The sergeant said, the next bay around is where the provos live, they have a delivery of brand new jeeps, take the landing craft, when you hear me coming run up on the beach open the ramp, and I will drive in. But don't be late the jeep will be hot. We did just that and returned to the ship, hoisted in the landing craft on the cutter's davits, painted the jeep Shropshire Blue with the men under punishment. It became the Commanders, and we took it home to Australia plus the landing craft, very useful it proved too. One very satisfied Commander. More to come, Regards,
I'd just finished reading your earlier email. I have to say, Copper reminds me of my own former CO , who was CO of TS Morrow for the best part of the last 20 yrs. I've been keeping him up to date with your installments and i know he too is most grateful. It is interesting seeing the change in the styles of the ships over the years, in some aspects they keep the same details, yet others they have advanced so much. Thankyou again,
I knew that it was no good saying where will I start or where will I stay up in Tokyo? It was a matter of taking myself off, getting up to the capital of Japan, using my initiative, and hoping for some luck. Having found the power of a bottle or so of Whiskey, at least when dealing with the Americans, I took the precaution of getting two more bottles, using the Commander's authority with the wine caterer in the Wardroom. But this time, it would be the Japanese I would need to cope with, I spoke none of
Now, how will we get such large numbers up to Nikko, it is quite a long way away?
I was not too sure about how good the last offer was, but no doubt it would soon be checked out by the very first group. I told my new found saviour that I wanted something special for my Captain , my Commander, and some senior Officers, and I was not talking about the brothels, I wanted special accommodation, a nice guest house etc, I fix, he said.
It seemed that I had achieved a minor miracle, without any hassles. I stayed overnight at the Imperial Palsce Hotel in Tokyo, and checked the next day aith my new found Japanese facilitator, he seemed to have it all sewn up. The first batch would leave next week, and I drove back to Yohahama somewhat in a better frame of mind than I was in, on my way up to Tokyo.
It all went off very well, everyone went off to Nikko, all loved it. When I was due to go, Copper said to me,
When we got to Nikko, I did visit the main brothel, but I hasten to add, just to check it all out, I did not get any complaints about it from anyone at all! Here we found a grizzled old Japanese guy who had fought the Chinese on the mainland of China in the 30's, he had a battered old taxi, which he drove for us, only wanting a tin of bully beef a day, as long as we found the petrol, that was not any problem. He drove the four of us high up into the mountains, the only time we climbed higher was on each bend of the road. We took over a lovely small guest house with hot bathing facilities, and lived Japanese style for a week, being looked after, and all our cooking needs taken care of, from the food we carried up there.
Melanie, Hello on this Sunday morning. Commander Morrow had served much of his sea time in Destroyers, which were his true love, he was not all that enamoured about his time in a Cruiser as its Executive Officer. By all accounts he was a dashing ship handler, would drive his destroyer alongside a wharf as if it were a motor car, quickly go astern, stop her dead alongside, order Finished with main engines, pipe Libertymen ashore, and march off his bridge. In Shropshire, she was much larger as a cruiser, and Captain Nichols was a competent ship handler, but on the conservative side, for entering harbour I would be alongside my Commander on a wing of the bridge, so that Copper could direct the handling of our mooring lines as we came alongside. The Captain would be taking his time in coming alongside, and Copper would be chafing at the slowness, often he would mutter to me:
In our time in Japan, there were two more occasions when the Commander sent for me to order me to get off on an unconventional visit ashore. The Japanese were great cave or tunnel diggers, and around their Naval Base in the Yokahama area were a large number of caves, the Commander wanted to know what they might hold, so he told me to take myself ashore and go and find out. As a precaution on me finding anything of value to our ship, I suggested that the Commander might like to give me some written document which gave me some authority. Fine said Copper, get my office to dream up something suitable and I will sign it for you. in the Commander's Office I had an Able Seaman Paul Wilkinson as my writer, he had a beautiful writing style and also an accomplished drawer. I told him our needs, and said produce something suitable that looked important and formal. Paul did a great job, this letter to WHOM IT MAY CONCERN authorised Lieutenant Mackenzie J Gregory RAN from HIS MAJESTY'S AUSTRALIAN SHIP SHROPSHIRE to visit the Japanese Naval Base Yokhama, and to collect any Naval Stores or artifacts therein suitable for the AUSTRALIAN WAR MEMORIAL in Canberra, Australia. igned Commander James C. Morrow. Distinguished Service Order, Distinguished Service Cross, Royal Australian Navy. Executive Officer, HMAS Shropshire. Flag Ship, Royal Australian Navy. Occupation Force. Tokyo Bay. A suitable waxed seal then was affixed to the document, and it was dated. The Commander was suitably impressed, and signed it for me with a big grin on his face. I don't expect you to return empty handed he said. It so happened that our Navigator used a metre based range finder for taking the distance from our anchorage when we were coming to our spot to drop the pick. This Barr and Stroud range finder was quite an expensive piece of equipment, and was on the Navigator's personal loan list, it had a spigot attached. which allowed it to be placed in a hole on the bridge wing. He was using this instrument to come to anchor when the Captain called out Pilot, `the Navigator swung round to answer the Captain, caught the range finder with his elbow, it detached from its housing and disappeared over the side with a big splash. Pilot was now faced with the cost of a replacement, and did not see any joke in his situation. Off I went ashore, taking two of the senior ratings from the seamen division of the ship. We explored some of these caves, and then came across a pile of what seemed to be British, here was a pile of boxed Barr and Stroud one metre range finders, what a find! They had been looted from supplies of the Royal Navy in Singapore, by the Japanese and brought to Japan, and stored here. We promptly liberated six of them, and with some of the Japanese high powered binoculars returned in triumph to the ship. Commander J. S. Mesley our Navigator, who had also been sunk in Canberra was delighted, and I told him he could knock another five over the side and still have one left. The serial numbers would all be different, but no one thought that would prove to be a problem. On the second occasion, The Commander said to me: Now the peace has come, and all our decks have been painted, we will need to soon start to scrub them again. Take all of the Captain's of the seamen's divisions ( four of them ) and the landing craft, find somewhere suitable, and go and look for a load of sand to help us clean up our upper deck. Now sand is a scarce commodity in Japan, and I am sure the Commander was well aware of that fact. I took a good look at the chart of Tokyo Bay, and found some miles away on the eastern shore, a large Naval Air Station listed, that seemed a likely spot to explore for sand?? Off we went, well on arrival, the air station was simply abandoned, there were about 100 aircraft all gassed up, just sitting on the runways, the Japanese had merely walked away. It seemed to be a Naval reconnaissance field, where aircraft went off to take photos, came back to have their work developed and translated as intelligence. The place was full of very suitable goodies, jewellers lathes, aircraft cameras, aircraft sextants, photographic development equipment,we filled the landing craft with loot, but alas no sign of any sand. We sailed back to the ship after being away a long time, the Commander said when I came alongside, What do you need? The use of the 5 ton crane Sir, was my response. Our loot was shared, the Captain sent for me the next day to tell me a signal had come from the C-in-C saying no one was to go ashore ( this was very early days in our occupation ) and there was to be no looting. Anyone see you ashore at the Naval air Station yesterday Gregory? No Sir. Well I can keep my bits then, he smiled. I guess it was all very small beer, and compensation for all we had suffered over the years, at least that is my rationalisation of it all Melanie. Finally, our occupation was all over, we sailed for Sydney, stopping in New Guinea to collect and transport about 600 soldiers home with us. Before we entered Sydney Harbour, some of our goodies were loaded into our Jeep, it was lowered in the landing craft, it went up on the beach at Bondi, the jeerp drove off, divested itsself of the loot, then waited on the wharf at Garden Island for our triumphant entry and going alongside, we were home at last, and the war was truly over. As a post script, on the 22nd. of December 1945, I married my childhood sweetheart Gladys, in Melbourne, after a four year engagement. Copper said, You better take an extra couple of weeks leave, for your honey moon, that you have earned. Thank you Sir! We both came back to Sydney, and for quite a time, Copper would send for me each morning, his greeting always the same:
Commander Morrow was a wonderful boss, a very caring and compassionate man, and a very efficient and competent Naval Officer, it was my honour and privilege to serve with and for him. Melanie, I guess that I have somewhat rambled on and on in trying to give you some of my thoughts on a legend of the RAN James Cairns Morrow, I enjoyed this experience, and really hope you have what you needed. Best wishes for the future, and good luck with your group. Mac.
The last week has been an insight, one that I shall not forget for my life I do expect. You say you've rambled, I say you have opened my eyes and you can be assured that your correspondence will be long talked about among our future generations at TS Morrow. Believe me when I say, it has been a pleasure to share your experiences. Only this morning I was saying to my grandmother that knowing that Commander Morrow had passed in only recent years without even so much as a birthday card, letter or any other correspondence from our unit saddens me. We were given a man's name to honour his role in our Navy and we never took the time to get to know him, your stories have given us a chance to at least get to know his memory. For that, I thank you eternally. I shall pass onto you a copy of what I end up compiling together on the Commander for your reference, hopefully I should have it completed in another 6-8 weeks. I have been asked to pass on thankyou's to you from Leut Ian Andrews Commanding Officer of TS Morrow, PO Danielle Wilson & LCDR Peter 'Spike' Jones - former CO of TS Morrow for the last 15 yrs. Please do keep in touch. From all of us, it has been a pleasure. With thanks, In Friendship and Trust ********** Mac & Terry - thankyou. Will keep you posted. PO Wilson & myself we just this morning discussing Trophies for the cadets for this year and I've offered to sponsor a new Trophy for Outstanding Leadership in memory of Copper. The offer was obviously accepted. Regards
Commander Morrow and me (Mac) plus Captain Nichols
Dear Mac - just a note to say hello and let you know my learning journey still continues. The last couple of months I have spoken with people from all over Australia and in a few places over seas who have shared a part of their life with our 'Copper'. Did you know he was also known as 'Ginger'? A more common nick-name perhaps, but yes, many that I have spoken to knew him more commondly as Ginger - but no matter what the name, they all speak in the most highest regards of him. I even tracked down a copy of the HMAS Shropshire book - interesting tale about the Crossing of the Line Ceremony and some lovely pictures to match at that Mr Gregory ;) I'd love to hear more about that some day for sure :) I have also spoken with Copper's family - it was an amazing joy believe me to recieve a letter from them in support of my writing his Biography. And so now, my journey continues and I'm sure in time, I will be dropping you a line again, if not to update you on events, to let you know that another wonderful sailor's story will not be going untold. Thankyou so much for helping to spark my search - I will never forget you for that. Blessings Melanie Comito PO ANC
Nice to hear from you, I am pleased you are getting plenty to go on with about Copper, or Ginger Morrow. I was aware that he was often called Ginger, but just happen to prefer the appelation of Copper. Your subject is of course very worthy of a Biography. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to seeing a completed version. Again, thank you for your very kind words, and take care of yourself. Kindest regards, Mac. |
