VAST ESTATES

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 296, 15 December 1936, Page 9

VAST ESTATES

“LUCKY MORRIS3NS.” COUNTESS OF ST. CYRES SUM OF £923,525 LEFT LONDON, Oct. 31. Tlie £923,525 estate of Viscountess St. Cyres, whose will was published recently reveals anotiier vast fortune of the “Lucky Morrisons,” one of Britain’s richest and least known families. Lady St. Cyres was Dorothy Morrison, daughter of the late Alfred Morrison, of Fonthill. If her fortune had touched the million mark she would have been the eighth Morrison to die a millionaire in recent years. She inherited £200,000 In 1922 from her uncle, Colonel Walter Morrison, s shy old man- who lived quietly ir Yorkshire and left £2,000,000. In the last quarter-century the Morrison family has paid about £6,000,000 to the Government in death duties. Yet the family of millions and modesty goes no further back than Walter Morrison's father. James Morrison, a poor Scots boy who came to London to seek his fortune. He went to work in a humble post in a drapery warehouse. He worked hard saved hard, and set up in business for himself as the Fore Street Warehouse Company. His business prospered, he invested his money shrewdly and died worth £4,000,000. A Mysterious Figure. To his son Charles he left £2,000,000. Charles did not rest. He was the most mysterious figure in the city in his day. He lived a frugal life. He dressed shabbily, did not smoke, drank only a little light claret, never entertained, never attended public functions of any kind. When he died he left £11,000,000 His will made four more Morrisons millionaires. They were: His brother Walter, Lady St. Cyres, uncle; his sister Ellen, who left £2,350,000; his nephew Hugh, who represented Sallisbury in the House of Commons and died in 1931, leaving £1,750,000; his nephew Archibald, Major J. A. Morrison, who died two years ago. Lady St. Cyres married the only son of the second Earl of Iddesleigh and cousin of the present Earl. She died last month. She left her estate at Walhampton, Lymlngton, Hants., and the residue of her property to Charles Andrew Morrison, second son of her nephew.