WW2 Medal Group 4 to Lieut Morris KIA HM Submarine Thames 1940.

A poignant WW2 Medal group of 1939/45 Star, Atlantic Star, Defence and 1939/45 War medal in named and addressed box of issue and condolence medal issue slip awarded to Lieutenant Fenton Harry Morris the officer 2nd in command who was kill on HMS Thames around the 23rd of July 1940.
Fenton Harry Morris was born in the city of Suva, Fiji on 27th August 1916. Why his family were in Fiji at the time is unknown and more research is needed into his father Edward Harry Morris. Fenton’s mother Ethel Mary Morris is widowed by 1939. He joined the Royal navy at the age of 16 and was midshipman on HMS Ramillies by 1934 before being transferred to HMS Valiant the same year and served on her until 1937. In 1937 he was posted to HMS Amphion as Sub-Lieutenant; she was a new Leander-class light cruiser later transferred to the Royal Australian Navy and renamed HMAS Perth. On the 16th August 1939 he was posted to his first Submarine, HMS H 50. She was predominantly a training vessel launched in October 1919 and during his time on H 50 he completed over thirty operational exercises.
In February 1940 he was transferred and promoted to Lieutenant on N 71 HM Submarine Thames, under the command of Lieutenant Commander William Donald Dunkerley.
In August 1939 she was assigned to 9th Submarine Flotilla with the Home Fleet. From there she undertook interception patrols, searching for German U-boats, surface raiders and blockade runners. After refitting during the winter she was active in the North Sea in spring 1940 during the Norwegian campaign. In July 1940 Thames torpedoed and sank the German torpedo boat Luchs. Luchs was part of the escort for the damaged German battleship Gneisenau that was on passage from Trondheim, Norway to Kiel, Germany.
The Thames was reported overdue on 3rd August 1940. The counter-attack by the escort of the Gneisenau is reported to have been ineffective and it is very doubtful that HMS Thames was lost because of it. This is why the general consensus is that she was mined on her return trip.
The Thames was holding 5 Officers and 56 Ratings, all were lost, including Fenton who was 23 years old.
Fenton H Morris is now remembered with honour at the Portsmouth Naval Memorial and with her crew on the Dundee International Submarine Memorial and also commemorated at the Royal Navy Submarine Museum Gosport.
His medals remain in their original wax paper packets and in the box of issue named and addressed to his mother, they are in near mint condition. It comes with various research and copied paperwork.

Code: 31090