The First Chief of Clan Morrison

John Morrison was the eldest son of John and Marion Morrison. His parents, both born in North Uist in the Outer Hebrides, had moved to a farm near Oban on the mainland, where John and his brothers were born. John attended High School in Oban before moving to George Watson’s in Edinburgh and on to Edinburgh University, where he read medicine. During WW1 he served as a surgeon on hospital ships supporting military convoys. At the end of the war, having witnessed the eye diseases and tropical fevers which afflicted so many children in Africa, he returned to qualify as an eye surgeon and then as a tropical disease specialist, before returning to West Africa. Later he moved to the Far East, where he worked on an early malaria team in Malaya, and then to Hong Kong and Shanghai, where he took an avid interest in traditional Chinese medicine.

In the 1930s he turned down a Professorship in Vienna, concerned by the rise of fascism in Europe, and returned to Britain. Now with a young family to support, he took a country practice in Bolton, which he supported with work at the hospital in Manchester. Before the establishment of the NHS, he was known for only billing patients who he felt could afford his services. He preferred to live frugally while supporting the poorer members of his community in the Hebridean way.

In 1961 he retired to North Uist, delighted to be able to speak his native language again and to receive visitors, who came from all over the world to hear about family and island traditions. More reluctantly, but out of a deep sense of duty, he bowed to pressure from the clan society and the Court of the Lord Lyon to raise his standard as chief of the clan. On October 19, 1967, he was Granted Arms, officially making him the first Chief of Clan Morrison. Unlike his famous brother William (“Shakes”), he was never comfortable in the spotlight, but carried out his new duties with patience and a quiet dignity.

Iain Martin Morrison of Ruchdi was born in Bolton, Lancashire, the son of John Morrison of Ruchdi, an eye surgeon who practiced in Hong Kong, and his wife, Dorothy Mary née Swan.  Educated at Cheltenham College, he studied medicine at St Thomas’s Hospital Medical School, qualifying in 1963.  At St Thomas’s he had been captain of tennis, enjoyed windsurfing, house building, and visiting the Outer Hebrides.

He did house jobs at St James’ Hospital, Balham in 1970 and St Thomas’ Hospital the following year.  In 1972, he was a senior registrar at the Brompton Hospital and at St James’. Four years later, he joined the staff of St Richards’s Hospital in Chichester and King Edward VII Hospital in Midhurst as a consultant physician and became an honorary senior lecturer at Charing Cross Hospital.  He was a fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine.

In 1964 he married Caroline Elizabeth née Lowe and they had two children, Fiona and John Ruairdh (‘Ru’). They divorced in 1983, and, in 1986, he married Alison Frances Ann née Hughes, a fellow medical practitioner.  They had two children, Matthew Iain and Catriona Sarah.

He was appointed Chief of Clan Morrison in succession to his father in 1974.  He was also president of the West Sussex Disabled Men’s Club in 1976

When he died his son Ru, became Chief of the Clan.

John Ruairidh (Ru) Morrison, was born in the United Kingdom, the son of Dr. Iain Morrison and his wife, Caroline (“Carly”). 

Ru earned his doctoral degree in oceanography from the University of Wales at Bangor and worked at the Bermuda Biological Station for Research, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, and the University of New Hampshire before becoming the founding executive director of the Northeast Regional Association of Coastal Ocean Observing Systems in 2009.

Ru lived his last 17 years in Northwood, New Hampshire with his wife, Ann Michelle, and their children.

Ru had an infectious enthusiasm for life, for his family, for his clan, for friendship, for science, and for good food and good spirits.  Quick with a smile and always with a good bottle of single malt at hand in the evenings, Ru was an expert pizza chef, skilled craftsman, and fourth degree black belt in Isshin Ryu karate.

When he died his son Alasdair, became Chief of the Clan.

 R. Alasdair Morrison was born in New Hampshire, USA, the son of Dr. Ru Morrison and Dr. Ann Michelle Morrison. He holds dual citizenship in the US and the UK.  Alasdair’s family ties to Scotland come through his father, his mother, Dr. Ann Michelle Morrison, was born in the US.

Alasdair is the first American-born chief of the clan, but spent his childhood summers at the family home, Ruchdi, in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, where the family worked on restoring the old house, hiking the hills and bogs of the islands, and helping their neighbors on the crofts whenever possible.

Alasdair’s dual Scottish and American heritage converge in his enjoyment of playing Celtic and bluegrass fiddle. During the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games in 2021, Alasdair surprised onlookers by sitting in and substituting, capably, for a state champion fiddler when she took a break. 

Alasdair’s other interests include engineering and computer science, which he is studying at university, and karate, in which he is a third-degree black belt. He recently began studying Robotics and Artificial Intelligence as well.

Alasdair has been preparing for his role as chief his entire life.  He attended his first highland games in New Hampshire when he was only a few months old and has since attended games throughout the US and even on the island of North Uist in the Outer Hebrides with his father.  In 2021 Alasdair came to Grandfather Mountain Highland Games, where he was the only Chief present and the youngest ever to open the games. Alasdair also attended the Stone Mountain games that year as well.