death_place death_date birth_place nationality notableworks birth_date language spouse genre article_title name occupation alma_mater
england 01 january 1902 madras , india british '' austral english '' 25 december 1843 english edith sarah catherine history , lexicography edward ellis morris
 edward ellis morris historian , lexicographer , headmaster lincoln college , oxford
edward ellis morris

edward ellis morris -lrb- 25 december 1843 -- 1 january 1902 -rrb- was an english educationist and miscellaneous writer and latterly in colonial australia .
morris was born at madras , india , fourteenth child of john carnac morris , accountant-general of the british east india company at madras , and his wife rosanna curtis .
morris was educated at rugby school and lincoln college , oxford , where he graduated b.a. in 1866 , with final honours in classics , law and modern history and m.a. 1869 .
he was an assistant master at st peter 's college , radley , and at haileybury , and in 1871 became headmaster of the bedfordshire middle class public school .
from 1875 to 1883 he was headmaster of the melbourne church of england grammar school which made progress under his direction .
during his period he established the prefect system in 1876 , and started the first school journal and the first school library in melbourne .
morris resigned from melbourne grammar in march 1882 after financial difficulties hit the school ; pupil numbers were in decline , partly due to the economic environment and partly to morris 's disciplinary measures .
in november 1882 morris was appointed hughes professor of english at the university of adelaide .
in 1883 morris accepted an offer from the university of melbourne for the position of professor of modern languages and literatures .
morris introduced courses in english , french and german languages and literature .
morris took a prominent part in the management of the university ; for several years he was president of the professorial board , and he was also in 1876 elected to the council of trinity college .
he had also many outside interests and it was at his suggestion that a branch of the charity organization society , of which he was the first president , was founded in melbourne in 1887 .
the melbourne shakespeare society , for many years the most flourishing literary society in victoria , was also founded on his suggestion and was its inaugural president 1884 -- 1888 .
morris took the greatest interest in the melbourne public library of which he was appointed a trustee in 1879 .
he became vice-president of the trustees in 1896 .
his '' `` memoirs of george higinbotham '' '' was published in 1895 , and his most important work , his painstaking and valuable `` austral english : a dictionary of australasian words , phrases and usages '' was published in 1898 .
for this , he was awarded a litt .
d. degree by the university of melbourne .
morris died while on a visit to europe on 1 january 1902 .
morris married the eldest daughter -lrb- died 1896 -rrb- of george higinbotham in 1879 .
he was survived by a son and three daughters .
morris also wrote two small volumes for the `` epochs of modern history '' series , `` the age of anne '' -lrb- 1877 -rrb- , and `` the early hanovarians '' -lrb- 1886 -rrb- .
morris edited the four volumes of cassell 's `` picturesque australasia '' -lrb- 1887 -- 89 -rrb- and some of his lectures were also published separately .
he had completed a work `` cook and his companions '' before his death which has not been published .
