Dr Leslie Gordon Morrison FFARCS MB ChB
Personal Details
Dr Leslie Gordon Morrison FFARCS MB ChB
07/01/1915 to 22/10/1998
Place of birth: Edinburgh, Scotland
Nationality: British
CRN: 511687
Education and qualifications
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General education |
Edinburgh Academy where he won art prizes (1927-1932). In 1931 he was runner up in the Public Schools individual Fencing Championship. Entered Edinburgh University Medical School in 1932. |
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Primary medical qualification(s) |
MB ChB, University of Edinburgh, 1937. |
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Initial Fellowship and type |
FFARCS by Election |
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Year of Fellowship |
1953 |
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Other qualification(s) |
DA (RCP&S), 1941 |
Professional life and career
Postgraduate career
After graduation Morrison was house surgeon at Salisbury General Hospital, Wiltshire (1937-38). From April 1938 he was house physician at St James’s Hospital, Leeds, but this was terminated in his fourth month there when he contracted rheumatic fever. While confined to bed, he indulged his interest in art – painting and sculpting. He resumed being a house physician from October 1939 at Cheltenham General Hospital. In June 1940 he was appointed as a resident anaesthetist in John Gillies’ Department at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh. Morrison and his two fellow residents, Wheeler and MacKinlay, were known as “the three musketeers”. In the British Army from 1942 to 1946 he served as an anaesthetist (Captain) in north Africa, the Mediterranean and Europe. The ‘hospital carrier’ ship on which he was working in January 1944 was bombed and sunk off Anzio. Luckily he was one of the two medical staff to be saved. He then joined an ambulance team on land, rescuing many and was wounded in action – for which he was awarded the Military Cross. On demobilisation in 1946 he returned to work at the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, before accepting an invitation to set up an anaesthetic department in Zurich, Switzerland through 1948-49. After returning to Edinburgh in 1949, he was appointed a Consultant Anaesthetist at Leith Hospital, where he remained until his retirement in 1980.
Professional interests and activities
In 1946 Morrison was awarded the John Snow Silver Medal by the Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland in recognition of his service in the Second World War. He was an Honorary Senior Lecturer in Anaesthesia at the University of Edinburgh. Through 1952-56 he was Secretary for the Association of Anaesthetists of Edinburgh and served as its President for 1958-59.
Other biographical information
Morrison married a medical practitioner, Alexina Mary Myles, in 1948 and they had a son and two daughters, all of whom went on to qualify in either medicine or dentistry. He maintained his interest in fencing, notably captaining the Scottish fencing team at the 1958 Commonwealth Games in Cardiff. At the 1978 Commonwealth Games in Edmonton, he was General Team Manager for Scotland, and he was Vice Chairman of the Sports Committee for the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh. He was an Elder in the Church of Scotland. In 1987 he and his wife emigrated to Adelaide, Australia to be with their children and grand children.
Author and sources
Author: Dr Alistair McKenzie
Sources and comments:
[1] Dr Morrison’s self submitted biographical college “Boulton form” dated 1988. [2] Johnston G. Obituary. British Medical Journal 1999; 318: 266.