Morris, Jan

(Catharine) Jan MorrisJan Morris, Paul Clements, University of Wales Press, 2008, p. 7 (born James Humphry Morris; 2 October 192620 November 2020) was a Welsh historian, author and travel writer. She was known particularly for the '' Pax Britannica'' trilogy (1968–1978), a history of the British Empire, and for portraits of cities, including Oxford, Venice, Trieste, Hong Kong and New York City. She published under her birth name, James, until 1972, when she had gender reassignment surgery after transitioning from male to female.

As James Morris, she was a member of the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition, which made the first ascent of the mountain. She was the only journalist to accompany the expedition, climbing with the team to a camp at 22,000 feet, and using a prearranged code to send news of the successful ascent, which was announced in '' The Times'' on the day of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation (2 June 1953).

Background

Morris was born in Clevedon, Somerset, England, the youngest of three children of Walter Henry Morris (died 1938), an engineer from Monmouth, on the borders of Wales, who never fully recovered after being gassed in the First World War, and Enid (née Payne; died 1981), an English church organist who trained as a concert pianist at the Leipzig Conservatory and was a "well-known recitalist in the early days of broadcasting in south Wales and the west of England". Her elder brothers Gareth (1920–2007) and Christopher (1922–2014) achieved distinction, as a flautist and as an organist and music publisher for the Oxford University Press respectively. Morris was a chorister in the choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, while boarding at Christ Church Cathedral School. Morris then went on to be educated at Lancing College, returning to Christ Church, Oxford, as an undergraduate, taking a second-class honours BA in 1951 (promoted to the customary Oxford MA in 1961), and editing the ''Cherwell'' magazine. Despite being born and largely raised in England, Morris always identified as Welsh. In the closing stages of the Second World War, Morris served in the 9th Queen's Royal Lancers, and in 1945 was posted to the Free Territory of Trieste, during the joint British–American occupation, eventually serving as regimental intelligence officer.Jan Morris, Paul Clements, University of Wales Press, 2008, p. 10

Career

After the war Morris wrote for '' The Times'', and in 1953 was the only journalist accompanying the 1953 British Mount Everest expedition, which included Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay, who were the first to scale Mount Everest. Morris reported the success of Hillary and Tenzing in a coded message to the newspaper, "Snow conditions bad stop advanced base abandoned yesterday stop awaiting improvement", and by happy coincidence the scoop was published in ''The Times'' on the morning of the coronation of Elizabeth II. The message was initially interpreted to mean that Tom Bourdillon and Tenzing had reached the summit, but the first name was corrected before the story was broken. Claims that the news was held back ignore the communication problems of the time; it was quite an achievement to get the news of the 29 May ascent to London by Coronation Day on 2 June, as it had to be sent to Namche Bazaar by runner.

Reporting from Cyprus on the Suez Crisis for the ''Manchester Guardian'' in 1956, Morris produced the first "irrefutable proof" of collusion between France and Israel in the invasion of Egyptian territory, interviewing French Air Force pilots who confirmed that they had been in action in support of Israeli forces. Morris reported on the 1961 trial of Adolf Eichmann