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2nd Lt. Oscar Frank Moritz
British Army 99th Btn Machine Gun Corps
from:Elibank Farm, Walkerburn
(d.27th July 1916)
Oscar Frank Moritz was the fifth son of the late Hermann Moritz (of the London Stock Exchange) and Elisa Mathilda Moritz (nee Kronhelm) of West Bank, Broadlands Road, Highgate, London. Born at Edmonton, Middlesex, on 21 March 1885. He had two brothers: Arnold Moritz and Julius Hermann Moritz. He attended Cholmeley's Preparatory School in Highgate, and from 1898-1903 Sherborne School in Dorset. After leaving School he became a Barrister-at-Law (Middle Temple) in 1910.
Oscar Moritz enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) on 5th of September 1914 as a stretcher bearer and rapidly rose to be a Staff Sergeant. On 30 April 1915 commissioned to the Border Regiment, 10th Bn.; transferred to the Machine Gun Corps (99th) in January 1916. He served with the Expeditionary Force in France and Flanders from April 1916 and saw much fighting on Vimy Ridge. He was reported wounded and missing after heavy fighting at at Delville Wood on 27th July 1916 while trying to bring up reinforcements for his gun, having previously received a wound in the thigh. During the battle every officer in his section of the Machine Gun Corps was either killed or wounded. Moritz's body was found some seven weeks later by an old school friend who buried him. He is commemorated at Thiepval Memorial, on the Walkerburn War Memorial and in the Sherborne School Book of Remembrance.
