Major-General Sir William Morison KCB, Madras Army Staff, 1845 (c)

Oil on canvas by unknown artist, 1845 (c).

Born near Alloa in 1781, Morison (1781-1851) entered the Madras Army in 1799 and transferred to Artillery in 1800. In 1802 he was appointed Assistant to the Mysore Survey but rejoined his corps for military service in February 1803. In 1804 he was made Deputy Secretary to the Military Board, Madras (Chennai). From 1810 to 1825 he formed and directed the Madras commissariat, and from 1811 to 1812 he superintended the geographical and statistical survey of Madras. He held various appointments including Member of the Supreme Council of India from 1834 to 1837, and was briefly Deputy Governor of Bengal. He returned to England in 1840 and retired with the rank of Major-General the following year, after which he became Member of Parliament for Clackmannan and Kinross until his death in 1851.

Morison never married but had a son, John William Morison, who was born in Travancore in 1828.