James was born on the 6 August 1905 in Manchester, Lancashire the 4th child of Thomas and Mary Jane (née Mather) Morrisey, with three brothers Joseph (1897), Thomas (1900)and Ernest Henry (1902) making up the family unit. The father Thomas appears to have suffered from ill health from around 1900 with an early demise (1914) that had James living with friends and family members in the 1911 and 1921 before he joined the Royal Navy in 1923.

James joined the Royal Navy on 3 November 1923 at Royal Naval Barracks Devonport HMS VIVID ll as a Stoker Second Class when he was 18 years and 4 months old. On 16 April 1924 he had a draft to HMS REVENGE with a return to VIVID ll on 14 August and advancement to Stoker First Class on 3 November 1924. On 13 December he was drafted to HMS WOOLWICH (LESAME) with a return to VIVID ll on 11 March 1925. He joined HMS DOLPHIN on 1 April 1925 for the submarine introductory course and was then drafted to HMS PEMBROKE ll for HMS M1 on 13 May.  On 28 June 1925 M1 was transferred to Portsmouth and had the depot ship DOLPHIN as part of the 5th Submarine Flotilla.

On 12 November 1925 while on Naval exercises in the English Channel 35 miles Southeast of Plymouth M1 was struck, while submerged by the Swedish merchant vessel “VIDAR”. With a large hole in her starboard side just forward of the conning tower she sank to the seabed 270 feet below without the chance to surface. There were no survivors. In 1999 a specialist diving team descended to the wreck and found her standing upright on the seabed shrouded in fishing nets with the large gun detached from the hull and laying on the seabed beside her.

Stoker 1c  James Morrisey Svc No. K62857  had “Crossed The Bar” with 68 of his shipmates.