In the passing of Ian Morrison, the Church has lost a most dedicated hardworking servant and Scotland has lost a man of great integrity of whom it could justly be proud.
Ian was born into a Gaelic-speaking family at Ardeonaig, on the banks of Loch Tay, where his father was a shepherd. In his early years his family moved to Ardnamurchan and then to Glen Croe, where he started school. In 1920, his father took the tenancy of a small farm on the banks of Loch Goil and Ian attended Lochgoilhead school, walking three miles each way every day. His childhood was happy, and the peninsula between Loch Goil and Loch Long was his playground.
After leaving school at 14, he went to work for an engineering firm in Glasgow. At about the age of 20, he responded to God's call and became a member of the evangelical Glasgow Tabernacle, often preaching on the street corners of the city. He soon felt called to be a missionary and undertook a diploma in theology at the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow.
During this time, he met Rachel Nicoll, the daughter of missionaries in China. Following graduation in 1936, Ian was sent to China by the National Bible Society of Scotland. There, he married Rachel the following year at her parent's former home in Chefoo. Within eight months of arriving in China, he gained advanced qualifications in written and spoken Mandarin, strengthening the effectiveness of his work in Tientsin and Shanghai. His family was lucky to gain places on one of the last ships to leave for Canada before the attack on Pearl Harbor, but Ian was not so fortunate, and spent the following four years in a Japanese internment camp. At the end of the Second World War, Ian
was reunited with his family
in Canada before returning together to Scotland.
In 1948, they moved to Singapore where Ian became the general secretary of the Bible societies in Malaya - an affiliation of the National Bible Society of Scotland. He and the agency he headed were responsible for the translation and distribution of scripture into the languages and dialects of the peoples of Singapore, Malaya and Borneo. He also pioneered the use of audio-visual aids in missionary work.
His contribution was outstanding, and this was recognised by the unstinting support he received from colleagues of different churches in south-east Asia and by a remarkable tribute paid to him by the Christian Council of Malaya. During the counter-insurgency campaign in Malaya, Ian also spent several years serving in the Singapore Harbour Police Reserve, frequently on anti-smuggling operations.
The Morrisons returned to Scotland in 1965, where
Ian undertook work for the National Bible Society of Scotland in Edinburgh and Prestwick. In 1968 they moved back to Edinburgh when, on the invitation of the Church of Scotland, Ian took over its audio-visual department. He continued in that post, which he greatly enjoyed, until his retirement in 1977.
Ian and Rachel remained in Edinburgh until 1999 when he suffered a stroke, having cared for Rachel during her six years of illness with Alzheimer's Disease. After he left hospital, they moved to a nursing home in Lesmahagow, but their time together there was cut short when Rachel died in May 2000. They had been married for 62 years and Ian still loved her as keenly as ever.
Ian Morrison was a man of great and diverse abilities. He had inherited the traits of determined single-mindedness, integrity, hard work and unswerving duty that were characteristic of many a west-Highland chield of his generation, and these were evidenced in much of his life. Had he chosen a different career, his qualities could have made him wealthy and successful, but he felt and answered the call of God to missionary service. Thereafter, nothing diverted him from his service to Christ and both he and his family suffered in consequence.
He accepted his very difficult internment by the Japanese as God's will, and his determination to ensure that his children were well educated brought with it periods of separation from them for years at a time. He was a demanding and sometimes unyielding father, who, nonetheless, could make children laugh until they ached. He expected his children to match his high standards and, until his later years, he did not express easily
the deep love that he undoubtedly felt for them.
But love he most certainly did, and in his twilight years, Ian gave of it most freely
and openly.
As a friend, he enjoyed verbal sparring matches on abstruse philosophical or
theological ideas, while golf
and fishing were his ways of finding relaxation.
Ian made a difference to thousands of people during his life and many Christians in China and south-east Asia will never be aware of the efforts he made for them.
Those who knew, respected and loved him will ever cherish his memory.
Ian Morrison is survived by his daughter, Dorothy and two sons, George and Neil.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article