Sir Christopher Jeremy Morse

KCMG KCMG may refer to * KC Motorgroup, based in Hong Kong, China * Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, British honour * KCMG-LP, radio station in New Mexico, USA * KCMG, callsign 1997-2001 of Los Angeles radio station KKLQ (FM) ...

(10 December 1928 – 4 February 2016) was an English banker, cruciverbalist and

chess composer A chess composer is a person who creates endgame studies or chess problems. Chess composers usually specialize in a particular genre, e.g. endgame studies, twomovers, threemovers, moremovers, helpmates, selfmates, fairy problems, or retrogr ...

who was Chancellor of the University of Bristol from 1989 to 2003, and was chairman of

Lloyds Bank Lloyds Bank plc is a British retail and commercial bank with branches across England and Wales. It has traditionally been considered one of the " Big Four" clearing banks. Lloyds Bank is the largest retail bank in Britain, and has an exte ...

Early life and education

Morse was born in 1928, only son (he had a younger sister) of Francis John Morse, of Lenwade House, Norwich, Norfolk, and his wife, Kinbarra, daughter of barrister Edward Armfield-Marrow. Francis John Morse- second son of Sir George Henry Morse, a brewer and Lord Mayor of Norwich from 1922 to 1923- was from a junior branch of the landed gentry Morse family of Lound, Suffolk. Morse was educated at

West Downs School West Downs School, Romsey Road, Winchester, Hampshire, was an English independent preparatory school, which was established in 1897 and closed in 1988. History Founding The school was founded by Lionel Helbert (1870–1919), with help from h ...

, Winchester College, and New College, Oxford.

Career

A career banker, Morse began with Williams and Glyn's Bank and went on to be chairman of

between 1977 and 1993. He served on the Board of the Bank of England as an executive director from 1965 to 1972, and as a non-executive from 1993 to 1997. He was also the first Chairman of the International Monetary Fund's Committee of Twenty (C20). In the 1975 New Year Honours, he was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) "for services to the reform of the international monetary system". He had a keen interest in

cryptic crosswords A cryptic crossword is a crossword, crossword puzzle in which each clue is a word puzzle. Cryptic crosswords are particularly popular in the United Kingdom, where they originated, Ireland, Israel, the Netherlands, and in several Commonwealth of Na ...

and was a skilful writer of clues. His record of success in the clue-writing competitions of Ximenes and Azed was such that Azed's December 2008 Competition puzzle was dedicated to the occasion of his eightieth birthday. He had puzzles published under the pseudonym "Esrom" (his surname in reverse). In addition to crosswords, Morse had an interest in other types of word puzzles, and was a frequent contributor to '' Word Ways: The Journal of Recreational Linguistics''. He was also a chess writer and wrote a book called ''Chess Problems: Tasks and Records''. Colin Dexter's fictional detective,

Inspector Morse Detective Chief Inspector Endeavour Morse, GM, is the eponymous fictional character in the series of detective novels by British author Colin Dexter. On television, he appears in the 33-episode drama series '' Inspector Morse'' (1987–2000), ...

, was named after him. In 2006 Morse was awarded the title of World Federation for Chess Composition Honorary Master. He was an honorary fellow of New College, Oxford, and of All Souls College, Oxford. He died on 4 February 2016 at the age of 87.

Personal life

In 1955, he married Belinda Marianne, daughter of Lt-Colonel Robert Breynton Yarnton Mills, OBE, MC, of the landed gentry Mills family of Sudgrove; they had three sons and two daughters (one of whom died young). Lady Morse died in 2017.BELINDA MARIANNE (MILLS) MORSE
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References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Morse, Jeremy 1928 births Alumni of New College, Oxford Chancellors of the University of Bristol Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford Fellows of New College, Oxford 2016 deaths People educated at West Downs School People educated at Winchester College Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George People associated with the Bank of England English bankers Crossword compilers Chess composers Chairmen of Lloyds Banking Group British chairpersons of corporations 20th-century English businesspeople