b. ? d. ?
DATE OF EM ACTION: 20/06/1916 Roslin Explosives Factory, Roslin, Scotland.
Little is known about William Alexander Morrison who worked at the Roslin Explosives Factory during World War I when the accident occured on 20th June 1916.
EM CITATION:
On the 20th June, 1916, a small explosion occurred at 10 a.m. in a building at the Roslin Explosives Factory. Morrison and Sang, who were aware that four girls were in the building, which had caught fire, and that the building was full of explosives, at once ran towards it. As they approached two of the girls came out and fell unconscious on the grass. The building was now blazing furiously; but Morrison and Sang, who knew the position of the explosives within, used the fire buckets so as to allay the flames in the dangerous quarter, and to enable Morrison to dash in. He groped through the smoke, which was dense white, found one girl and passed her out to Young, who had arrived meanwhile; he then returned for the second girl, and eventually brought her out, while Young placed the first girl on a bogey, which he thrust along the line out of danger, and then returned for the second. Sang meanwhile kept the fire down as far as possible with water buckets.
During the whole of this time small explosions were continually taking place within the building, and immediately after the second rescue a heavy explosion occurred, which flattened down part of it. Twelve minutes after the orginal explosion the whole building blew up.
BURIAL LOCATION: UNKNOWN.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: PRIVATELY HELD. SOLD AT BONHAMS IN 2008 FOR £2,702.
