William Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil

The Viscount Dunrossil
Morrison in 1960
14th Governor-General of Australia
In office
2 February 1960 – 3 February 1961
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterRobert Menzies
Preceded bySir William Slim
Succeeded byLord De L'Isle
Speaker of the House of Commons
of the United Kingdom
In office
31 October 1951 – 20 October 1959
MonarchsGeorge VI
Elizabeth II
Prime MinisterWinston Churchill
Anthony Eden
Harold Macmillan
Preceded byDouglas Clifton Brown
Succeeded bySir Harry Hylton-Foster
Ministerial positions
Postmaster General
In office
3 April 1940 – 7 February 1943
MonarchGeorge VI
Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlain
Winston Churchill
Preceded byGeorge Tryon
Succeeded byHarry Crookshank
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office
29 January 1939 – 3 April 1940
MonarchGeorge VI
Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlain
Preceded byThe Earl Winterton
Succeeded byGeorge Tryon
Minister of Food
In office
4 September 1939 – 3 April 1940
MonarchGeorge VI
Prime MinisterNeville Chamberlain
Preceded byOffice Established
Charles McCurdy as Minister of Food Control, 1921
Succeeded byThe Lord Woolton
Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
In office
29 October 1936 – 29 January 1939
MonarchsEdward VIII
George VI
Prime MinisterStanley Baldwin
Neville Chamberlain
Preceded byWalter Elliot
Succeeded bySir Reginald Dorman-Smith
Constituency
Member of Parliament
for Cirencester and Tewkesbury
In office
30 May 1929 – 18 September 1959
Preceded byThomas Davies
Succeeded byNicholas Ridley
Personal details
Born(1893-08-10)10 August 1893
Torinturk, Argyll, Scotland
Died3 February 1961(1961-02-03) (aged 67)
Canberra, Australia
Resting placeSt John the Baptist Church, Reid
NationalityBritish
Political partyConservative
Spouse
Katharine Swan
(m. 1924)
ChildrenFour, including John
Alma materUniversity of Edinburgh

William Shepherd Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil, GCMG, MC, PC, QC (10 August 1893 – 3 February 1961), was a British politician. He was a long-serving cabinet minister before serving as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1951 to 1959. He was then appointed as the 14th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1960 until his death in 1961.

Morrison was the son of a Scottish farmer, born in the small village of Torinturk, Argyll. He attended George Watson's College and then went on to the University of Edinburgh; his studies were interrupted by World War I, where he served with the Royal Field Artillery and won the Military Cross. Training as a lawyer, Morrison was called to the bar in 1923 and began working as a private secretary to Sir Thomas Inskip, the Solicitor-General. After several previous attempts, he was elected to the House of Commons in 1929, representing a constituency in Gloucestershire for the Conservative Party.

In 1936, after several years as a junior minister, Morrison was made Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries by Stanley Baldwin. He also served as a minister under Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill, including as Minister of Food (1939–1940), Postmaster General (1940–1943), and Minister of Town and Country Planning (1943–1945). Morrison was elevated to the speakership following the 1951 general election. He was praised for his impartiality, especially during the heated debate on the Suez Crisis, and was raised to the viscountcy when his term ended. Lord Dunrossil became governor-general in 1960, on the nomination of Robert Menzies, but served only a year before dying in office.


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