226536 Lt. James Morgan Atkinson Royal Flying Corps 4 Sqdn. from:Ferns, Co Wicklow, Ireland My grandfather James Morgan served as an observer in No 4 Squadron of the RFC and was based at Abeele Aaerodrome in West Flanders in 1917.
He and his pilot Wilfred Morgan were shot down in RE8 Plane Serial No B5040 behind enemy lines near Ypres on 12 Oct 1917.
Wilfred Morgan died in a POW camp of his wounds. My grandfather - Morgan as he was known - survived in a POW camp in Baden and Heidelberg until his repatriation in August 1918. His gunshot wound in the back and hip severed his sciatic nerve and he suffered paralysis in his foot. He laterally had several amputations of his leg and ended up with a wooden leg below his knee.
My granddad died in 1970 when I was 8 years old. He never spoke to any of us about his experiences but I do remember there was a picture of the gravestone of his pilot Wilfred Morgan on the mantelpiece on their small holding farm in Clonmore, Co Carlow in the Republic of Ireland.
My aunt has spent many years researching our family tree and has produced a little booklet about Granddad's war years. One burning ambition is to try and find out more about his RFC time. He had started in WWI in the ASC Divisional Train - he loved horses.
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