John Sinclair Morrison | |
|---|---|
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| Born | (1913-06-15)15 June 1913 Lindfield, West Sussex, England |
| Died | 25 October 2000(2000-10-25) (aged 87) |
| Occupation | English classicist |
John Sinclair MorrisonCBE (15 June 1913 – 25 October 2000) was anEnglishclassicist whose work led to the reconstruction of anAthenianTrireme, an ancient oared warship.
FromLindfield, Sussex, Morrison was educated atCharterhouse andTrinity College, Cambridge.[1] He wasprofessor ofGreek and head of the classics department at theUniversity of Durham from 1945 to 1950. He was aTutor at Trinity from 1950 to 1960, then vice-master ofChurchill College, from 1960 to 1965.when he became the first President ofUniversity College, later renamed Wolfson College.
He was considered an expert on the Greek trireme, the oared warship of the Athenian classical golden age, and is best known as one of the founders in 1982, withCharles Willink, another classics teacher,John Coates, a naval architect, andFrank Welsh, a banker, of the Trireme Trust, to test his theories about the Athenian trireme by building a full-size reconstruction. In 1984, the Greek Government promised funding, and in 1987 theOlympias was commissioned.
WithR. T. Williams, Morrison wroteGreek Oared Ships: 900–322 BC;[2]Long Ships and Round Ships (1980);[3] with John Coates,The Athenian Trireme: the History and Reconstruction of an Ancient Greek Warship (1986);[4] with J. F. Coates,Greek and Roman Oared Warships (1996);[5] and other works.
His elder daughter, Annis Garfield, the classicist and author, was an alumna ofGirton College, and was voted the most beautiful girl in Cambridge in 1968.[6]
In 1991 he was awarded theCaird Medal of theNational Maritime Museum, jointly with John Coates.
In 1989, he was awarded an Honorary Degree (Doctor of Letters) by theUniversity of Bath.[7]
He died on 25 October 2000 at the age of 87.
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