Obituary: Hon. Alasdair Morrison,M.A.,Ph.D., VMH

The Hon. Alasdair Andrew Orr Morrison, an enthusiast for orchids and many aspects of orchid societies both British and international, died suddenly on Saturday 5 December 2009 aged 80.

Born in Glasgow, he was educated at Fettes and Balliol College, Oxford where he started by reading Botany. But he found the long hours in the laboratory interfered too much with his social life and political activities so he changed course and took a degree in Politics and Philosophy. For several years he worked in India and then Canada before returning to academic life, gaining a Ph.D. at the University of Chicago. He returned to England to an appointment at the University of Bristol in 1966.

His activities with orchids centred on his great interest in Old World species, especially the genera Dendrobium and Bulbophyllum. Between 1972 and 1988 he made trips to many parts of South East Asia, Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Philippines, Thailand and Australia to study and collect orchids. He had started growing a few orchids as a hobby in 1966 and he joined the Bristol and West of England Orchid Society at about that time. He was appointed to the RHS Orchid Committee in 1977 and became its Chairman in 1985, following his election to the RHS Council in 1984. He served as President of the British Orchid Council from 1985 to 1997.

It was at the Miami World Orchid Conference in 1984 that he became involved with the American Orchid Society’s World Orchid Conference Committee. Working with Dr David Brown of the AOS he was instrumental in setting up the WOC Trust and getting it established and sponsored jointly by the RHS and AOS. He was one of the WOC Trustees from its beginning in 1988 until 2001 and its President from 1993-96. He was heavily involved in the planning of the Glasgow World Orchid Conference (1993) and the WOC in Rio de Janeiro in 1996.

He has received recognition for his contributions to orchid affairs from many Societies, including Membership of the DOG, Honorary Fellow of the OSSEA, Emeritus Judge of the AOS and, in 1994, the Victoria Medal of Honour from the Royal Horticultural Society.

Joyce Stewart