May-25-15
 | | MissScarlett: The Times, September 7th, 1935:
<The premature death of Mr. J. H. Morrison on September 1 will come as a shock to the small circle of friends to whom he was known. Morrison was a scholar at Wadham studying philosophy under Drewitt, whose general outlook on life greatly influenced him. On leaving Oxford Morrison found that the classical training he had followed left him without knowledge of any value in meeting the practical side of it. However, at the outbreak of the War in 1914 he joined the Navy as an able seaman and rose to commissioned rank. [...]His private life was distinguished by his devotion to his mother, who died this year at the age ot 88, leaving a gap in his life which he found impossible to fill.> John Drewitt |
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Jan-14-21
 | | Stonehenge: https://anthonyjcamp.com/
John Harold Morrison (1883-1935), the professional just mentioned for his work on the Underhill family, had joined the Society in 1930. He was an extraordinarily rapid and persistent worker and following the Underhill book he produced in quick succession three books derived entirely from the probate records at Somerset House. The first, Register Scrope, distributed to 67 subscribers in June 1934 and containing extracts of all the wills proved in the PCC in 1634, was an innovation in printing technique. It had been printed entirely on a Gestetner duplicating machine 'driven by a small motor (working on an ordinary electro-light circuit), and turning out copies of the pages at the rate of 70 a minute', he having cut the stencils on a Motor-Varityper which allowed him to use half a dozen different typefaces. Both techniques were only a few months old and this is thought to have been the first book of any size printed entirely in this manner. In the introduction he thanked the Superintendent of the Department for Literary Enquiry, Mr J. H. Pettit, for being 'unfailingly courteous in granting me all the facilities at his disposal'. In December that year he published his second great work, an index containing abstracts of all the PCC administrations between 1620 and 1630. He was in a fever to fill in the gaps in the indexes printed by the British Record Society and in his preface wrote, 'Life is short by the measure of the work which remains to be done in this field ... It would remain to press on with the continuation of both series across the gulf which still intervenes before the official publications begin in 1858. And then the minor courts might receive further attention. How much of this will be accomplished, before the bombs fall and the original documents are destroyed for ever?' It was a prophetic comment but he did not live to see it come true. In August 1935 he published his third great work, an index to the PCC wills proved between 1661 and 1670. The Probate Act Book for the year 1662 was missing and, 'I had proposed', as he wrote in his Preface, 'with the aid of a friendly official, to collate my list with all the filed wills proved that year. But when this was about to be done, it was vetoed by Mr Horsford, of the Principal Probate Registry, who has done so much to obstruct access to the records of which he (unfortunately for all who are interested in them) is the official Keeper. Accordingly, unregistered wills proved in 1662 remain unlisted and unknown' [1145]. The official obstruction so well known in the Department had clearly preyed on his mind and with this final attack and <after dedicating his book in Latin in a way which intimated that he was 'about to die', he dated the Preface 18th August and thirteen days later, upset also by the recent death of his mother, he gassed himself. He was fifty-one.> Morrison's death greatly shocked the genealogical community and was long remembered and commented upon but the situation in the strong rooms at Somerset House remained the same. |
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Jan-14-21
| | MissScarlett: Strange; first time round, I don't think the idea of suicide occurred, but reading the <Times> obit again...only to continue onto the Camp piece. He'd played Yates back in 1926. |
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Jan-14-21
| | MissScarlett: Liverpool Echo, September 4th 1935, p.10:
<A tragic story of a man who grieved very greatly over his mother's death, last March, when she was accidentally burned, was told at the inquest in London, to-day, on John Harold Morrison, aged 51, described as an author, of Woburn Mansions, Francis-street, W.C., who was found gassed.Florence Elizabeth Poulton said that Morrison, her half-brother, was overwhelmed by his mother's death. and said that he found it hard to live without her. The Coroner (Mr. Ingleby Oddie).— He has been working very hard, frequently staying up most of the night? — Yes, finding consolation in his work. She added that her half-brother had hinted at suicide. but it was hoped that interest and enthusiasm in his work might take his mind off it. It was stated that Morrison had put a gas poker into a tube, from the end of which he allowed gas to escape. He had fastened it to his body with webbing. A notice on the door warned people not to enter owing to the gas. The coroner said that no doubt Morrison took the death of his mother, to whom he was devoted, very much to heart, and in his loneliness he tried to find consolation in his work. He left a long letter arranging for the administration of his estate -- and a note to him (the coroner) about the inquest. His financial position was quite sound. A verdict of "Suicide while of unsound mind" was recorded.> |
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Kibitzing
