Lord Dunrossil

William Shepherd Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil (8 October 1893 - 3 February 1961), 14th Governor-General of Australia, was born in Scotland and educated at Edinburgh University. He joined the British Army in the First World War and served with an artillery regiment in France, where he won the Military Cross. In 1919 he left the Army with the rank of Captain. He was elected to the House of Commons as Conservative MP for Cirencester and Tewkesbury in 1929. In Parliament he acquired the nickname "Shakes," from his habit of quoting from the works of William Shakespeare.

Morrison had a long ministerial career under four Prime Ministers (Ramsay MacDonald, Stanley Baldwin, Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill). He was:

• Parliamentary Secretary to the Attorney-General 1931-35,
• Financial Secretary to the Treasury 1935-36,
• Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries 1936-39,
• Minister for Food 1939-40,
• Postmaster-General 1940-43
• Minister for Town and Country Planning 1943-45.

In 1951, when the Conservatives returned to power, Morrison was elected Speaker of the House of Commons. He was opposed by Labour MP Major James Milner, who said it was his party's turn to have a Speaker of the House. It was the first contested election for the post in the twentieth century. Morrison was elected in a vote on party lines.

Morrison held the post of Speaker until 1959, when he resigned from Parliament. As was customary for former Speakers he was made a Viscount, taking the title Viscount Dunrossil of Vallaquie.

He was appointed Governor-General of Australia the same year. By this time support for the idea of British Governors-General was declining in Australia, but the Liberal Prime Minister, Robert Menzies, was determined to maintain the British link.

Dunrossil took office in February 1960. Exactly a year later he died suddenly in Canberra, the first and only Australian Governor-General to die in office.