Mr. Bryan Morwood

Remembered for his many qualities as a schoolmaster, he also gave distinguished military service and Lt. Morwood Royal Artillery was awarded the Military Cross for the successful defence of a prison in Athens, Greece in late 1944, his citation reading, “not only did this officer save the lives of his men, but it was also largely due to him that the small garrison managed to hold out..” Bryan Morwood was born in Larne, Co. Antrim on December 22, 1922, the son of a sergeant in the Royal Ulster Constabulary who had transferred from the recently disbanded Royal Irish Constabulary.

His mother died when he was an infant and he was raised by an aunt.

Educated at Larne Grammar School he became head boy shortly before the outbreak of war.

Enlisting in the ranks he was quickly recommended for officer selection and training and at 18 was commissioned into the Royal Artillery. Initially serving in an Anti–Aircraft unit in the UK he volunteered for overseas service in order to see action and saw it in North Africa and Italy as a field gunner.

In Italy in June 1944 his unit, 64 Field Battery RA, became an Air Landing Battery and became part of the 2nd Independent Parachute Brigade.

Upon deployment to Greece, Morwood, together with elements of 64 Air Landing, 4 Para and Special Forces under Lt Col Jellicoe was involved in harassing retreating Germans, from which enterprise, he reported many years later that he was lucky to escape unscathed.

Morwood’s leg wound sustained in the prison battle in Athens was so severe that he was repatriated to the UK for treatment.

In 1946 he rejoined 64 Air Landing Battery, now part of 6 Airborne Division in Palestine. After completing parachute training he became a Forward Observation Officer but his operational duties centred around dealing with Jewish and Arab terrorists and public order situations.

In 1947 he left the Army and went to St John’s College, Cambridge from where he graduated in Natural Sciences. With his hallmark modesty he later claimed that St. John’s only accepted him because he was an ex-serviceman.

In 1950 Morwood married Muriel Davison who had been Head Girl at Larne Grammar when he had been Head Boy.

She had served in the Queen Alexandra’s Imperial Military Nursing Service throughout the war and they had managed to meet up in Egypt.

They immigrated to Kenya where Morwood began his career as a schoolmaster at the Duke of York School near Nairobi. Here he had the opportunity to instil in some of his pupils his enthusiasm for zoology and botany.

He maintained his interest in military matters through his leadership of the school’s Combined Cadet Force and also trained the cross-country teams.

A keen cross-country runner himself, he commented in the school magazine; “it avails a team little to gain the first three places if the next three in the team are far to the rear.” While he acknowledged the place for individual excellence, he always reinforced it was through the strength of the team that real change was achieved.

In 1964 he moved back to Northern Ireland where he continued his career as a schoolmaster at Portora Royal School serving as a housemaster and first master until he retired in 1986. He also served as an officer in the Ulster Defence Regiment for a number of years, bringing useful expertise to that role not only from his wartime experience but also from the colonial conflicts he had helped police in Palestine and witnessed in Kenya.

Morwood had many enviable qualities as a schoolmaster and it is for this rather than for his military service that he is most remembered.

A man of robust constitution and a great capacity for hard work he also had a high intellectual ability, particularly in the study and appreciation of the natural world.

He understood the importance of the defence of the nation and was an outstanding teacher; catching and holding the attention and interest of his pupils and, in some, sparking their imagination for future careers.

He is survived by his three sons.

Details provided by Mr. Bill Duff.