CHARLES MORRISON

Charles Morrison retired to Peebles in the 1970s after a distinguished academic career which took him to West Africa from 1938 to1949, an area in which he retained a strong interest especially in the Gold Coast’s transition to Ghana in 1957. His academic career concluded at Dundee College of Education where his subject was the History and Theory of Education.

His interests were truly those of a ‘Renaissance Man’ – literature, the arts, music – but above all it was as a devoted amateur naturalist that his enthusiasms came through. He catalogued plants, kept sightings of migratory and resident birds as well as plotting the nesting areas of skylarks in order to advise farmers where not to plough.

Charles Morrison was a staunch supporter of The Tweeddale Society latterly becoming its inspirational President right up to his death. It was after his death that the then Council of the Society resolved that in each session there be a “Charles Morrison Memorial Lecture”. The invited lecturer would be asked to present a lecture on any aspect of the natural world of his/her choosing.