Survey of India On the outbreak of war in 1914 he was posted to India but was immediately sent back to England to train sappers. In 1915 he commanded the 212th Field Company, Royal Engineers 33rd Division in the Battle of the Hohenzollern Redoubt. His company was moved for the Battle of the Somme where he was promoted to major in 1916 and was awarded the DSO. He was at the Battle of Arras and the Battle of Passchendaele after which he was evacuated home with trench fever, returning to France in 1918 and promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel to command the 46th (North Midland) Divisional Engineers. He was wounded by shrapnel while reconnoitring the crossings of the St Quentin Canal and was sent back to England. After three weeks' leave he returned to the front but the war had by then just ended. After the war Morshead, back in his substantive rank of major, returned to the Survey of India to lead survey work in Waziristan. In 1920 he accompanied Alexander Kellas in an attempt to climb the Kamet but the porters could not be persuaded to establish a camp at . Morshead shouldered the blame – "I have nothing but praise for the Bhutia coolies of the higher Himalaya. On rock they climb like goats, while on ice they readily learn step-cutting. It appears very doubtful if the present-day expense of importing Alpine guides can ever justify their employment in future Himalayan exploration". Although the expedition did not reach the summit, their physiological studies at altitude were to be of help in the next years' Everest expeditions. Mount Everest On the 1921 British reconnaissance expedition, Morshead led the Survey of India team which mapped, at a scale of four miles to an inch (1:250,000), of entirely unexplored country. During this expedition he climbed Kama Changri at and with George Mallory was the first to establish the camp on the Lhakpa La. In the 1922 expedition, Morshead was a member of the Everest climbing party itself. Because he had only been allowed leave at the last minute his expedition clothing had to be bought at Darjeeling bazaar and it was inadequate. On 20 May 1922 with Mallory, Howard Somervell and Teddy Norton, Morshead was in the first assault team, which attempted reaching the summit without oxygen. As the party left the North Col to head up towards the north