Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A fine Second War C.M.G., inter-War K.P.M. group of five awarded to Inspector General R. C. Morris, Burma Police

The Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George, C.M.G., Companion’s neck badge, silver-gilt and enamel, with section of neck riband for display purposes, in Garrard, London, case of issue; India General Service 1908-35, 1 clasp, Burma 1930-32 (Dy. Insp. Genl. R. C. Morris. Police Dept); Jubilee 1935, unnamed as issued; Coronation 1937, unnamed as issued; King’s Police Medal, G.V.R., 2nd issue, for Distinguished Service (Ralph Clarence Morris, Indian Police, Burma.) last four mounted as worn, good very fine (5) £800-£1,000

C.M.G. London Gazette 1 January 1941.

K.P.M. Gazette of India 1 January 1935.
The official citation, published in the Gazette of India Extraordinary on 1 January 1935, states: ‘Mr. Ralph Clarence Morris, Deputy Inspector-General of Police for Railways and Criminal Investigation, joined the Indian Police in 1908 as an Assistant Superintendent and very early in his career showed promise of developing into an officer of more than average merit. During the Great War he acted in the capacity of Personal Assistant to the Deputy Inspector-General of Military Police from May 1917 to February 1920 and was highly commended for his exceptional ability, self-reliance, resource and industry. While in charge of the Police in the Meiktila District in 1921 he dealt effectively with a serious outbreak of crime. In October 1921 he was specially selected for the post of Superintendent of Police Supplies which he held till February 1926 and brought the Department to a high state of efficiency.

In June 1926 he was promoted to the Selection Grade and officiated as Deputy Inspector-General, Administration, from April to November 1928 when he was appointed as Assistant Inspector-General of Police. He held this post with distinction for about three years, earning the highest praise from the Inspector-General. In March 1931 he was appointed as Deputy Inspector-General of Police for Railways and Criminal Investigation and during the strenuous months of that year of rebellion he showed himself once more to be a very able, hard working and successful officer. As officiating Inspector-General of Police from June 1933 to January 1934 he gave complete satisfaction in the administration of the force and proved himself to be a sound and efficient administrator.’

Ralph Clarence Morris was born in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire, on 10 March 1889. Educated at Ludlow Grammar School, he joined the Indian Police and served in Burma from 6 December 1908. Enjoying steady advancement in his career, Morris also saw the increasingly violent opposition to British rule in Burma led by a section of English-educated nationalists, as detailed by author S. R. Chakravarty in The Tharrawaddy Rebellion in Burma:
‘Influenced by Indian revolutionaries - especially those from Bengal - the mid-1920’s witnessed the development of secretive Burmese cells with a mission to convince the local populous of the need to self rule. Arguing that ‘liberty’ and ‘good government’ could not be delivered by one group of people to another, the revolutionaries succeeded in stirring up the people with arguments of imperialism being founded upon force and fraud.’

The resultant anti-imperialist rebellion broke out on 22 December 1930, taking the immediate form of attacks on police stations and governmental buildings. It ended in August 1931 with the capture of the nationalists’ leader, physician and former monk Saya San. Awarded the India General Service Medal and confirmed as entitled to the Silver Jubilee and Coronation Medals, Morris was decorated with the C.M.G. in 1941 as Inspector General of Police, Burma, and is later recorded in the Civil List for Burma (1 September 1942) as ‘on leave preparatory to retirement’. Relocating to Bournemouth, Morris died on 28 May 1959.

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