Morgans, did they survive?

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At first glance, this picture appears to feature two early Morgan 3 wheelers in an abandoned building. Morgan started building 2-seater 3 wheelers in 1911 and by the outbreak of the war, production had reached 1000 per year.

The picture is not quite what it seems. On the night of 5th and 6th June 1915, Hull received its first air attack from a German Zeppelin.  A Zeppelin could carry up to two tons of bombs, usually incendiary bombs, which were dropped (thrown out to be more accurate) from around 3,000 ft.

In the case of this attack, there were no warnings and of course no air raid shelters and there was quite a lot of panic and damage to buildings, mainly caused by fires. In all, there were 8 attacks on Hull and some 160 casualties, including a number of deaths.  The east coast had quite a number of Zeppelin attacks early in that war.

The photograph was taken of a building situated at 109 ½ Constable Street, Hull (I love the 109 ½, the 1/2 usually means that a house has been split into two dwellings) which received a direct hit during that first raid. It had been reported that the Morgans were burned out, but they do not look too badly damaged. One was registered AT 2379 (in Hull) and the other U 3056 (not quite sure of the numbers) registered in Leeds. I wonder if they were rebuilt and survived the war.

Words by Michael E Ware.

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