Historical Information (Source: CWGC)

Pont-sur-Sambre was in German hands for much of the First World War but was finally taken by the 1st D.C.L.I. on 5 November 1918. The communal cemetery contains 54 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, one of which is unidentified.

Serjeant James Hargreaves MORTON - 25401 - 1st/5th Bn. East Lancashire Regiment - Died 06 November 1918 Age 37

Personal Inscription: JAMES HARGREAVES MORTON "ARTIST" DARWEN, LANCASHIRE

Morton was no amateur dauber, he was a cotton town Impressionist, in touch with European trends and movements. He left behind more than 400 oils, watercolours, pastels and drawings when he was fatally wounded on November 6.

Morton received his first training as an artist in Darwen School of Art before winning a scholarship to the Royal College of Art. After this he took a job teaching art at Darlington Technical School but decided before long that he couldn't concentrate on his painting whilst teaching.  In 1911 Morton described himself as a decorative designer in wall paper, working on his own account. There were several wallpaper manufacturers in Darwen who would have bought his designs. But in the following years he became increasingly well known as an artist, exhibiting at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool and at the Royal Academy. One of his best-known paintings, Johanna, which shows a young Belgian refugee, was painted during the first years of the war, as was a rather haunting self portrait in which Morton seems to stare stoically but apprehensively into the future.

Morton was thirty-three when the war broke out. He did not enlist but in 1916 was conscripted. He served with the 5th Battalion East Lancashire Regiment and must have been a capable soldier since within two years he was a serjeant. He was killed in action on 6 November when the battalion launched an attack in the Forest of Mormal, which had to be withdrawn in the face of fierce machine gun fire and a threatened counter attack. The attack succeeded the next day.

After his death, the sisters kept all Morton's paintings, honouring his wish that they should be kept together. But after Alice's death in 1967 they were sold uncatalogued and with no record of the buyers. Recently there has been a revival of interest in his work and in 2013 James Hargreaves Morton A Short Colourful Life was published by the Friends of Darwen Library.