Charles Morrison

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Sir Charles Andrew Morrison (25 June 1932 – 9 May 2005) was a Conservative Party (UK) politician. The son of the 1st Baron Margadale and educated at Eton, he was Member of Parliament (MP) for Devizes from a 1964 by-election until his retirement in 1992, when he was succeeded by Michael Ancram. He was knighted in 1988. His brother was Sir Peter Morrison, former MP for Chester. His sister, the Honourable Dame Mary Morrison, was a Woman of the Bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth II for forty years. (Appointed 1960).

Sir Charles married firstly on 28 Oct 1954 Antoinette Sara Frances Sibell Long, only child of the 2nd Viscount Long and his wife Frances Laura Charteris. They had two children but the marriage ended in divorce. He married secondly in 1984, Rosalind Elizabeth Lygon. They also divorced.

He purchased Fyfield Manor in Oxfordshire from former Prime Minister Sir Anthony Eden in 1966. As a landowner and Conservative Party MP his moderate views did not find favour with Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

According to his obituary in The Guardian in May 2005, Sir Charles' great-great-grandfather James Morrison created his vast wealth by stockpiling black crepe fabric in readiness for the mourning of King William IV in 1837, becoming known as "the richest common man in the Empire". In the 1830s, he circumvented high tariffs on pairs of gloves by importing right-handed gloves through Yarmouth, Isle of Wight and left-handed ones through Southampton.

[edit] References

• Times Guide to the House of Commons 1987, Guardian obituary
• Leigh Rayment's Peerage Page

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