William Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil

William Shepherd Morrison, 1st Viscount Dunrossil, GCMG, MC, PC, QC (10 August 1893 – 3 February 1961), was a British politician. He was a long-serving cabinet minister before serving as Speaker of the House of Commons from 1951 to 1959. He was then appointed as the 14th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 1960 until his death in 1961.

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The Right Honourable The Viscount Dunrossil GCMG MC PC QC
Morrison in 1960
14th Governor-General of Australia
In office 2 February 1960 – 3 February 1961
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Robert Menzies
Preceded by	Sir William Slim
Succeeded by	Lord De L'Isle
Speaker of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
In office 31 October 1951 – 20 October 1959
Monarchs	George VI Elizabeth II
Preceded by	Douglas Clifton Brown
Succeeded by	Sir Harry Hylton-Foster
Ministerial positions Postmaster General In office 3 April 1940 – 7 February 1943 Monarch George VI Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain Winston Churchill Preceded by George Tryon Succeeded by Harry Crookshank Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster In office 29 January 1939 – 3 April 1940 Monarch George VI Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain Preceded by The Earl Winterton Succeeded by George Tryon Minister of Food In office 4 September 1939 – 3 April 1940 Monarch George VI Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain Preceded by Office Established Charles McCurdy as Minister of Food Control, 1921 Succeeded by The Lord Woolton Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food In office 29 October 1936 – 29 January 1939 Monarchs Edward VIII George VI Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin Neville Chamberlain Preceded by Walter Elliot Succeeded by Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith
Constituency Member of Parliament for Cirencester and Tewkesbury In office 30 May 1929 – 18 September 1959 Preceded by Thomas Davies Succeeded by Nicholas Ridley
Personal details
Born	(1893-08-10)10 August 1893 Torinturk, Argyll, Scotland
Died	3 February 1961(1961-02-03) (aged 67) Canberra, Australia
Resting place	St John the Baptist Church, Reid
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Katharine Swan ​ (m. 1924)​
Children	Four, including John
Alma mater	University of Edinburgh

Morrison was the son of a Scottish farmer, born in the small village of Torinturk, Argyll. He attended George Watson's College and then went on to the University of Edinburgh; his studies were interrupted by World War I, where he served with the Royal Field Artillery and won the Military Cross. Training as a lawyer, Morrison was called to the bar in 1923 and began working as a private secretary to Thomas Inskip, the Solicitor General. After several previous attempts, he was elected to the House of Commons in 1929, representing a constituency in Gloucestershire for the Conservative Party.

In 1936, after several years as a junior minister, Morrison was made Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries by Stanley Baldwin. He also served as a minister under Neville Chamberlain and Winston Churchill, including as Minister of Food (1939–1940), Postmaster General (1940–1943), and Minister of Town and Country Planning (1943–1945). Morrison was elevated to the speakership following the 1951 general election. He was praised for his impartiality, especially during the heated debate on the Suez Crisis, and was raised to the viscountcy when his term ended. Lord Dunrossil became governor-general in 1960, on the nomination of Robert Menzies, but served only a year before dying in office.