He was born on 31 May 1913 in Peking, as the oldest son to Australian adventurer and journalist George Ernest Morrison and Jennie Wark Robin. His father had been living in Peking on and off since 1897, when he had been stationed there as The Times' first Peking correspondent. In 1919, the family moved to United Kingdom, where the father died in 1920. Ian Morrison and his two younger brothers, Alastair Gwynne and Colin, were all educated at Winchester College before continuing to Cambridge University. From 1935 to 1938, Morrison was appointed English lecturer at Hokkaido Imperial University in Sapporo, Japan. From 1938, he was secretary to the British ambassador in Tokyo, Sir Robert Craigie. In 1941, Morrison married the Austrian/Czechoslovakian Maria Therese Neubauer in Hong Kong. They had met earlier in Shanghai. They had two children, Nicholas and Petra. In 1946, his brother Colin married Maria's sister, Steffi.
Regret involved in airplane accident enroute obtain eyewitness operational full stop hospitalised injuries seriouser than yestertime hope recover soon Dickson Brown newschronicler kindly consented cover next three days thereafter Curthoys sorry disappoint you good story
He did not return to combat journalism for seven months, and by the following December he had been shot once again, so he telegraphed The Times:
Left hospital today. Thumb, in which fragments of Dutch bullet are lodged, will take at least a fortnight to heal up, but hope to resume filing about Thursday. Another bullet grazed side without doing any damage.
Morrison wrote three books related to World War II:
Grandfather Longlegs: The Life and Gallant Death of Major H.P. Seagrim, G.C., D.S.O.
Between the wars
After the war, he was stationed in Singapore as a correspondent for The Times and travelled widely for them. While visiting Hong Kong, he met and had a love affair with local doctor and future author Han Suyin. Their story was told in her semi-autobiographical first novelA Many-Splendoured Thing which was made into a very successful film in 1955.
Korean War
When the Korean War broke out in 1950, Morrison was despatched there by The Times. He published his first article from the front on 10 July. He died on 12 August 1950, when a jeep carrying him, Indian Colonel M. K. Unni Nayar, and British journalistChristopher Buckley, struck a landmine that killed all three. He and Buckley were buried together at a private mission cemetery in Daegu with other correspondents acting as pallbearers. An American Guard of Honour fired a salute, and the Last Post was sounded. His name is listed in the Hong Kong Foreign Correspondents' Club as a member killed in the line of duty.
