The last survivor of a torpedoed World War II ship has died aged 101 – on his daughter’s birthday – after testing positive for Covid-19.
Dennis Morley, from Chalford, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, was a prisoner on the Japanese ship Lisbon Maru when it was attacked by an American submarine in 1942 and more than 800 captured British troops died when it went down.
Mr Morley survived and after being rescued from the sea remained a prisoner of war of the Japanese until Christmas Day 1945.
Exactly 75 years later he spent Christmas 2020 in Gloucestershire Royal Hospital being treated for a leg infection and a fall.
He was expecting to go home on December 29 but then tested positive for Covid-19.
Mr Morely died on January 3, his daughter Denise Wynn’s birthday. He was the last of the passengers and crew from the sinking of the Lisbon Maru.

Dennis Morley, the last survivor of a torpedoed World War II ship, has died aged 101 – on his daughter’s birthday – after testing positive for Covid-19

Mr Morley from Chalford, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, was a prisoner on the Japanese ship Lisbon Maru when it was attacked by an American submarine in 1942 and more than 800 captured British troops died when it went down
‘I was absolutely heartbroken,’ said his great granddaughter Leone Coysh, who is a nurse at the same hospital. ‘It was all about accepting fate because of his age when he was diagnosed.
‘It was the worst day of my life. It was the icing on the cake for 2020. It was horrendous.
‘I took him a picture of my four-month-old daughter on Christmas Day, and he said he was so sad he wouldn’t get to see her grow up – he loved her to bits,’ said Leone.
‘He was just an incredible man, someone that everybody loved. He was so selfless – always thinking about other people.’
She described how he tried to calm his fellow prisoners and help them swim when the Lisbon Maru began sinking in 1942.
On his 88th Birthday, Dennis had taken Leone, aged 10, with him on a trip of reconciliation to Japan, where he met with former Japanese soldiers and forgave his captors.
Dennis, a Bandsman and stretcher bearer in the Royal Scots 1st Battalion, was supposed to attend a memorial dedication ceremony for the victims of the Lisbon Maru at the National Memorial Arboretum in October.

‘I was absolutely heartbroken,’ said his great granddaughter Leone Coysh (pictured), who is a nurse at the same hospital

Mr Morley survived and after being rescued from the sea remained a prisoner of war of the Japanese until Christmas Day 1945

Mr Morely died on January 3, his daughter Denise Wynn’s birthday. He was the last of the passengers and crew from the sinking of the Lisbon Maru
In October 1942, the Lisbon Maru was carrying 1,816 prisoners that Japan had captured – after they took Hong Kong in December 1941 – to Japan without any markings indicating POWs were on board, when it was shot by an American vessel.
Carnage ensued over the next 24 hours as Dennis and the other prisoners, who were left trapped below deck, tried to escape and swim.
Japanese soldiers shot at the men in the water, only ceasing fire when local unarmed Chinese fishermen began rescuing nearly 400 of them from the sea.
Dennis, then in his twenties, spent the rest of the war in a POW camp in Osaka, Japan, where he worked in the docks and at the airport.
He moved to Wotton-under-Edge, Gloucestershire, after the war and married twice.
Brian Finch, who translated the book A Faithful Record of The Lisbon Maru Incident from Chinese said: ‘Dennis Morley was the last known survivor of this terrible event. He and all those that suffered should never be forgotten.
‘May he and they rest in peace.’
Source: Daily Mail |World News