Morris served in the army from 1915 to 1934. After serving in the trenches during the
First World War, he transferred to the
Indian Army's
3rd Gurkha Rifles. He took part in two attempts to climb
Mount Everest;
the first under General
Charles Granville Bruce and climbing leader Lt-Col
Edward Lisle Strutt in
1922, and the second in
1936 under
Hugh Ruttledge. Morris was a skilled photographer, his photographs of the indigenous people encountered on the expedition demonstrate a deep sympathy and connection with his subjects. His photographs are part of the 2024
National Trust exhibition ‘Other Everests: One Mountain, Many Worlds’. He was repatriated by the
Diplomatic corps after Japan's entry into the
Second World War and joined the BBC, running their
Far East service. From February 1943 to October 1943 he worked in the same department as
George Orwell, at 200
Oxford Street. He wrote an article about Orwell, "Some are more equal than others", for
Penguin New Writing Number 40, September 1950 which was reprinted in
Orwell Remembered with the title "That Curiously Crucified Expression":
Stephen Spender described Morris in his
Journals as: He was made a
Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the
1957 New Year Honours, and appeared as a castaway on the
BBC Radio programme
Desert Island Discs on 16 February 1959. == Bibliography ==