| Level | Sub-fonds |
| Finding Number (Click this to view full catalogue structure) | CMS/ACC1034 |
| Title | Accession 1034: Papers of Stanley Andrew Morrison and Margaret Amy Morrison |
| Extent | 12 standard boxes, 1 outsize |
| Date | 1798-c 1999 |
| Thumbnail (Click this image to open a larger image) | 
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| Description | Personal and family papers of Stanley Andrew Morrison (1894-1956), missionary to Egypt with the Church Mission Society 1920-1954; Executive Secretary of the Committee for Refugee Work, Lebanon 1951-1953; General Secretary of the Christian Council of Kenya 1954-1956; also of Margaret Amy Morrison (d 1978), née Girling, who, in 1929, went out to Egypt with the CMS [under a Short Service Agreement] before marrying Stanley Morrison. The papers mostly date from the 20th century but there is some earlier material including 'The Times' newspaper, 3 October 1798. As well as records directly relating to Stanley and Margaret Morrison there are papers and correspondence of other Morrison and Girling family members.
The collection broadly comprises: correspondence of S. A. Morrison, Margaret A. Morrison and other family members, 1919-1996; articles and papers by S. A. Morrison, 1927-c 1953 and undated; small compilations of papers gathered by one or more members of the Morrison family, including papers relating to the life of Stanley Morrison, the Church’s Ministry Among the Jews, the Civil Service Women's Missionary Union and papers relating to Stanley Morrison’s sisters, Kathleen Elizabeth and Nora Margaret Morrison; Morrison family personalia, 1798-c 1988; postcards, 1909-c 1969; photographs, [c 1892]-c 1997; printed literature, including copies of CMS publications and miscellaneous books and magazines owned by members of the family dated [early 20th century]-c 1966.
The files of correspondence relating to Stanley and Margaret Morrison's time overseas include circular letters from S. A. Morrison writing during his first years with the CMS Egypt Mission, 1920-1937; personal correspondence from S. A. Morrison and Margaret A. Morrison writing from Egypt, Lebanon and Kenya, 1929-1956 and a copy of CMS Instructions delivered to S. A. Morrison on the occasion on his joining the CMS Egypt Mission in 1921. Within the correspondence of other family members, there are two letters from [Charles] Girling written whilst visiting the Morrisons in Cairo, 1941-1942.
The family correspondence includes brief references to the many different individuals and agencies that the Morrisons come across whilst living in Egypt and Kenya, either through work commitments or social engagements. The family also share news of friends elsewhere, including CMS missionaries. Stanley mentions articles and books that he is working on and how they are received; attending and speaking at conferences; liaison with local officials, the Salvation Army, members of the British Press, representatives of churches in Canada and the USA and organisations from elsewhere in the world. They go to the cinema, attend school concerts and, whilst in Egypt, Stanley plays football with the local YMCA [Young Men’s Christian Association]. Stanley's letters to his sister, Nora Morrison, include thanking for her help in distributing circular letters and instructing her to act on his behalf in dealing with financial matters.
The correspondence is a good source of information on contemporary themes and different branches of mission work. In terms of CMS mission to Egypt, there are references to literary, medical and educational work, work with people who were blind, social clubs for men and boys and ‘newspaper evangelism’ as well as work with the YMCA, the National Church Council, the Purity Movement and the Alliance of Honour. There are mentions of CMS missionaries and others working in the field, including Archdeacon Adeeb Eff Shammas and Gindi Eff Ibraheem, evangelist, teacher and government-appointed inspector of schools. Within the Kenya correspondence, Stanley records visiting detention camps, meeting camp commandants and their wives, meeting the ‘man in the Ministry of Rehabilitation and Community Development’ concerned with broadcasting in detention camps, plans regarding a home for European alcoholics, meetings of the Kenya Guild (‘an association formed to promote better understanding and co-operation between the Africans and the Europeans…’), topics discussed at meetings of the Inter-Racial study group and the sub-committee of the Rehabilitation Advisory Committee, the Pocket testament League, the Capricorn Africa Society; attending cocktail parties at Government House.
The written works by S. A. Morrison reflect his active interest in religious freedom, partnership and united Christian witness.
The collection is particularly of note for anyone researching the Morrison family, CMS mission to Egypt in the first half of the 20th century, the role of Christian agencies in work with refugees from Palestine in the early 1950s and in Kenya in the mid-1950s, and inter-agency working. |
| Notes | The images are copies of photographs from the collection:
/Stanley and Margaret Morrison standing outside; Margaret is holding their baby daughter, Joan, on the occasion of Joan's Christening (CMS/ACC1034 Z8)
/'N.E.C.C. Executive Committee Meeting ..., April 1936': an informal group photograph of 14 men and women, four are seated on chairs, the others are standing behind (CMS/ACC1034 Z8)
/'S.A.M. On the Suez Road': Stanley Morrison sitting in a motorbike sidecar; the bike is parked on an unsurfaced road, next to a wall (CMS/ACC1034 Z8)
/'Table-making [?]Gindi Eff & pupil': two men wearing tarboosh (a traditional hat worn by Egyptian men); one man is sat behind a partly-woven table, the other is standing at his side leaning forward over the table. (CMS/ACC1034 Z9)
/'Discussion Group. Y. M. C. A. Camp, Alexandria, 1928': six men sitting on chairs arranged around a table. Stanley Morrison with his back to the camera (CMS/ACC1034 Z8) |
| Arrangement | The collection forms part of the Church Mission Society Unofficial Papers. It is arranged in two series in line with the CMS classification used for the Unofficial Papers:
F: Family papers
Z: Miscellaneous papers |
| Access Conditions | The majority of the collection is open to all registered researchers. Correspondence that is not in the public domain has been closed for 40 years in line with the closure period that applies to the official CMS archive (GB 0150 CMS). Furthermore, records of a sensitive nature relating to living individuals are closed in line with Data Protection legislation. A few very fragile items are closed for preservation reasons. Where an item is currently not available for research, this is indicated in the catalogue at file level. Closed items are packaged separately. |
| Copyright | Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in advance in writing from the Director of Special Collections (email: special-collections@contacts.bham.ac.uk). Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult. Special Collections will assist where possible with identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material. |
| Language | English |
| Finding Aids | A catalogue of this collection is available online. Click on the Finding Number to display the summary contents list of the catalogue and to view the full catalogue. A paper copy of this catalogue is also available for consultation in Cadbury Research Library. |
| Access Status | Partially closed |
| Creator Name | Stanley Andrew Morrison, 1894-1956, missionary and administrator |
| Margaret Amy Morrison, d 1978, née Girling, personal secretary |
| Administrative History | 1894-1919:
Stanley Andrew Morrison, also known as 'Sam', was born in Walton, Liverpool, 25 March 1894. He was the middle child of Hugh Morrison (d 1945), a Custom House officer and Sunday School teacher, and Minnie Morrison (d November 1936). Stanley had an older sister, Kathleen Elizabeth Morrison and a younger sister, Nora Margaret Morrison (b 1897). He wrote regularly to his family in England throughout the years he spent living overseas.
Stanley was educated at Arnot Street Board School, and, from 1906-1912, at the Liverpool Institute High School for Boys. In autumn 1912, he enrolled at Oxford University under a non-collegiate Shute Scholarship (Modern History); he graduated Hons 2nd class in Moderations (Classics) and Hons 2nd class Literae Humaniores (Classics), 1916.
From 1913, he undertook work with the Children’s Special Service Mission (now the ‘Scripture Union’). He also held several secretarial and teaching roles, including Scripture Union Secretary at the Grammar School in Walden, Sunday School teacher, and, for two years whilst at Oxford, Evangelistic Secretary of the Christian Union.
After graduating from Oxford, Stanley began work as Assistant Master (languages) at the Grammar School, Saffron Walden, Essex.
1919-1953:
Stanley was accepted for mission service 1 May 1919. He left for Cairo to start work with the CMS Egypt Mission 27 September 1920 and was appointed Mission Secretary 13 March 1929. He shared a flat with Dr Frederick Oakley Lasbrey at the CMS Hospital, Old Cairo, until November 1921 when he moved to live with Canon William Henry Temple Gairdner and Margaret Dundas Gairdner, née Mitchell, in Cairo City. Apart from time spent on secondment in Beirut 1951-1953, Stanley was based at Cairo for the whole of his 34 years of service with the CMS. He became highly proficient in Arabic.
Stanley travelled back to England 18 times over his 34 years with the CMS. On one of these trips he married Margaret Amy Girling. Margaret began work with the CMS Egypt Mission in March 1929. Based in Cairo, she worked with Stanley and acted as his private secretary for over 16 months before they married. Their wedding took place in Lewisham, 9 September 1930. Margaret and Stanley’s first child, John Hugh Morrison, was born 23 November 1932; suffering from congenital heart disease, John died 13 April 1933. Their daughter, Joan Margaret Morrison (later Bamford), was born 11 January 1934; Joan attended the CMS Girls' School in Cairo.
Whilst in Cairo, Stanley was engaged in a range of service developments and worked with other agencies active in Egypt at the time. As Mission Secretary, he kept abreast of all new initiatives under CMS. He was active in the establishment of the Egypt Executive Committee of the Alliance of Honour (1920), printing and circulation of Christian literature, clubs with Christian and social aims for boys and men at Boulac, Menouf and Old Cairo and later a girls’ club at Boulac, training classes for catechists and work with people who were blind. He was Secretary of the Egypt Inter-Mission Council on Missions and Government and Chairman of the Evangelistic Committee of the Near East Christian Council. He worked in YMCA camps and in the School of Oriental Studies at the American University and liaised with the National Church Council. He wrote a number of articles and spoke at conferences.
In May 1951, a conference of church leaders was held at Beirut. Organised by the World Council of Churches and International Missionary Council, Christians were urged to unite in helping with the Palestine relief effort. S. A. Morrison was amongst the delegates who visited refugee camps in the days before the conference opened. The event was to lead to the Morrisons leaving Egypt for the Lebanon.
In 1951, the Morrisons relocated to Beirut after the CMS Committee sanctioned Stanley’s secondment to work as Executive Secretary of the United Missionary Council Committee on Refugees, October 1951-October 1953. By 1952, the Committee had evolved and Stanley was Executive Secretary of the Near East Christian Council Committee for Refugee Work (and ‘representative in the Near East of the World Council of Churches’ Department of Inter-Church Aid and Services to Refugees’). He was tasked with coordinating the refugee relief work of all Christian agencies in the Middle East working with refugees from Palestine, a role which included weekly meetings with the recently established United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNWRA). As Stanley’s secondment ended, the minutes of the Executive Committee of the NECC record the Committee's appreciation not only for his work but ‘for the great contribution Mrs. Morrison had made’. Three years later, on hearing news of Stanley’s death, the Executive Committee of the NECC reflected on his achievements: ‘His contributions and signal successes in the field of ecumenical relations and understanding, particularly in Egypt, remain today as the bases of whatever further steps we can take in this field.’
In July 1953, the Morrisons packed up their lives in Beirut and the things they still had in Cairo, and returned to England. Having completed his full term of service, Stanley retired from CMS in May 1954.
1954-1956:
In 1954, Stanley was appointed General Secretary of the Christian Council of Kenya (CCK) and in the summer of that year the Morrisons moved to Nairobi. Stanley's role included work among the Kikuyu people held in detention and rehabilitation camps.
Stanley Morrison died at Bromley, Hayes, Kent, 14 July 1956. He was survived by Margaret who died in Nairobi Hospital, 3 February 1978. Stanley and Margaret's daughter, Joan Bamford, née Morrison, died in 2018.
Written works by S. A. Morrison:
/'Religious Liberty in Turkey, 1935
/‘Religious Liberty in Syria and Palestine’, [c 1935]
/'The way of partnership: with the C. M. S. in Egypt and Palestine’. London: Church Missionary Society, 1936
/'The Church and the State' Ed: Kenneth G. Grubb, International Missionary Council at Tambaram, Madras, December 12th to 29th 1938. Authors: Kenneth Grubb, S. A. Morrison and Paul Anderson. London: Oxford University Press for the International Missionary Council, 1939
/‘Middle East survey: the political, social and religious problems’. London: SCM Press, 1954
/‘Middle East tensions: political, social and religious’. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1955 (American edition of 'Middle East Survey')
/‘Near East’. London: Highway Press, 1955
/Working Together. II - Near East'. London: Highway Press, 1955
/‘Communism is not the answer to Egypt’s problems’; this title was issued in Arabic under a pen name in 1951
/'Religious Liberty in the Near East’, London: World Dominion Press, [1948]
/'Cairo: How to see it in four days'. Cairo: CMS Bookshop, nd
/'Voluntary associations and social service in Egypt', nd
Sources:
/The records
/’Church Missionary Historical Record’, 1951-1954. Available online at ‘Church Missionary Society Periodicals’, Adam Matthew Digital, 2022; accessed 18.02.2022
/CMS Committee minutes (Church Missionary Society Archive CMS/G/C1/83)
/NECC Executive committee minutes, 30 April 1953 and 23-25 October 1956 (CMS AS35-59 MIE O1). Available online at ‘Research Source - Church Missionary Society Archive’, Adam Matthew Digital, 2022; accessed 22.02.2022
/CMS Register of Missionaries: List I: 1919-1922 (manuscript). Available online at ‘Church Missionary Society Periodicals’, Adam Matthew Digital, 2022; accessed 16.02.2022
/Register of baptisms, Christ Church, Everton, Liverpool 1891-1904. Available online at: https://www.lan-opc.org.uk/Liverpool/Everton/christchurch/baptisms_1894-1896.html; accessed 18.02.2022
/Jisc Library Hub Discover. Available online at https://discover.libraryhub.jisc.ac.uk; accessed 01/03/2022. |
| Custodial History | The family papers passed from Joan Margaret Bamford (1934-2018), née Morrison, daughter of Stanley A. and Margaret A. Morrison, to Joan's son, Christopher David Bamford (b 1963) after Joan's death in 2018. Before Joan died, the papers were temporarily in the custody of Professor John Stuart, Kingston University, London. John Stuart sorted the papers in consultation with Joan whilst working on a research paper; he returned them to Christopher, 7 June 2019. |
| Acquisition | Presented by the family, 30 August 2019. |
| Archival Note | Catalogued by I. Frlan, 2022. Prepared in accordance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000 and Church Missionary Society cataloguing guidelines. |
| Related Material | Cadbury Research Library holds the Church Missionary Society Archive which includes the official archive of the Church Mission Society (GB 0150 CMS) and additional privately deposited collections within the CMS Unofficial Papers (GB 0150 CMS/ACC).
There are papers, correspondence and published works relating to the Morrisons in the official archive. These mostly relate to Stanley's service with the CMS Mission to Egypt but also include news of his role under secondment to the United Missionary Council Central Committee for Refugee Work in Beirut and a few entries in the papers and periodicals dating from his work in Kenya after retiring from the CMS. Some of his photographs are used as illustrations in articles he wrote for CMS magazines, including 'A Ceremony and a Cinema' in Eastward Ho!, pp 51-55, 2 April 1923. There are a few miscellaneous items in the CMS Unofficial Papers. |