an important collection of military diaries, memoirs and letters written by two generations of the Morant family from 1845 to 1919. Lieutenant-General Horatio Harbord Morant (1824-1888) and his son Brigadier-General Hubert Horatio Shirley Morant DSO (1870-1946) were both senior British Army officers who had successful careers in the 68th or Durham Light Infantry (DLI). The collection covers DLI campaigns from the Crimea to the end of the First World War. It will enhance the popular Durham Light Infantry regimental archive already preserved in Durham County Record Office.
Although the Morants originated from Hampshire, Hubert Morant and his family resided at the Hermitage, Hexham, Northumberland. When the contents of the Hermitage were sold at auction in June 2013, archive services in County Durham and Northumberland worked with national funding bodies to ensure that significant military, estate and family records could be preserved in the North East and made publicly accessible for the first time. The Friends of the National Libraries also helped to purchase additional diaries which emerged from Morant family members in December 2013.
The Record Office plans to make the complete contents of Hubert Morant’s memoirs freely available online as the basis for a community-led history of 10th DLI.
