Sidney Arnold Morse's Service on H.M.H.S. Oxfordshire

My father, Sidney Arnold Morse, when called up did not want to go off killing other human beings and decided to join the hospital service. It is unclear when he actually joined up but he was sent to Chatham initially for basic training but didn't enjoy all the "Bull" that the Petty Officers carried out on them but eventually, he was sent to Greenock, in Scotland, to join HMS Ranpura, an armed Merchant Cruiser, which had been until the 6 September 1939 the passenger ship SS Rampura of the P. & O. Steam Navigation Co Ltd, London. It was requisitioned by the Admiralty and converted into an armed merchant cruiser. The conversion was completed on 30 November 1939.

He and his fellow Medics sailed on the HMS Ranpura, 28/7/1942 to Freetown, Sierra Leone, where they were transferred to S.S. Edinburgh castle, which also had been a liner and was acting as a Training and Depot Ship. It served 5 years as a Naval Depot and accommodation ship at Freetown Sierra Leone. The former Union Castle Liner was sunk in 45 fathoms of water after receiving her final death blow from the corvette HMS Porchester Castle as the cost of towing her back to Britain was too high.

He and his fellow crew were transferred to H.M.H.S. Oxfordshire which before the war had been a cruise ship belonging to the Bibby Line. This ship, which he was to serve on until 23/12/1943, had been modified into hospital wards of around 36 beds in each and at the age of 22 my father was put in charge of one of them.

He recalled to me that at 06.00 hrs each morning all the beds were pulled into the middle of the sick bay and the floors scrubbed. When that was done they were moved back and the normal actions of a sick bay carried. This included sorting out any dressings that may have come undone overnight. Breakfast was brought to the beds of those who couldn't get out of bed. Then issuing of medication. The making of beds became a ritual where the turned-down sheets had to be done to the naval-measured 6" pillows "fluffed" up and patients made comfortable.

Between 6/11/1942 and 23/12/43 HMHS Oxfordshire sailed some 43,061 miles recorded. Between 23/12/1943 and 05/09/1944 the ship sailed many more voyages. Quite a number of times they would sail back to Avonmouth for a month but my Father never said why.

During one time when they were based at Alexandria in 1943, attached to the 8th Army H.Q., my Father and a number of his colleagues decided to go out and try and find some interesting Roman or Greek or Egyptian ruins. Walking along the road they came across a number of members of the Pioneer Corps who digging trenches or putting in sanitation and a number of comments were passed between the two groups when one of the Pioneer Corps soldiers looked up and it was my father's brother, Roy, who he had not seen since 1940! My father persuaded his brother and mate to go back to Oxfordshire where their uniforms were washed and pressed. They tried to persuade Roy and his mate to stay overnight on board as they had the pick of 36 beds with cotton sheets. My uncle refused stating that they barely got permission to go on board. It was a good job they left the boat as it left at 02.00 hours the next morning for the Anzio Landings on the Western Italian coast!

They were fired on by the Germans off the Anzio Coast a number of times even though they were painted white all over and had the Red Cross symbol prominently displayed, and they were brightly lit up at night!

The ship had two special areas in the bow. On one side of the ship was a padded cell for those poor souls who suffered mental issues due to the fighting and on the other side was a cage for those who caused trouble.
At the Anzio Landings, where the ship was treating both American and German wounded they had to place the Germans in the padded cell because some of the American wounded were trying to get to them to kill them.

One of the most odious tasks my Father recalled having to do was, literally, shovel up body parts after each operation that was carried out during the heat of the battle. He never said whether they were dealt with sympathetically but knowing my father they would have been.