Morris, Edward Patrick Morris, 1st Baron

▪ British statesman

born May 8, 1859, St. John's, Newfoundland [Canada]

died October 24, 1935, London

      statesman, premier of Newfoundland from 1909 to 1918, and member of the British House of Lords from 1918.

      Morris was called to the bar in 1885 and was made queen's counselor in 1896. He represented St. John's West in the Newfoundland house of assembly from 1885 to 1918, originally as an Independent. From 1890 to 1895 Morris served as acting attorney general for Newfoundland under a Liberal administration, and he was director of the Newfoundland Savings Bank from 1893 to 1906. He left the Liberal Party in 1898 and led first the Independent Liberals (1898–1908) and then the People's Party (1908–19). He served as attorney general again in 1902 and later became minister of justice in Sir Robert Bond's Liberal government. Morris was knighted in 1904. He resigned in 1907, however, because he considered Bond's social policies to be overly cautious. He then joined with the Conservatives to lead the new People's Party, becoming premier in 1909.

      Under Morris' leadership, many social improvements were begun, and help was given to the British war effort during World War I (1914–18). Morris attended several imperial councils, and he joined the privy council in 1911 and the imperial war cabinet in 1916. He persuaded the Liberal Party and Fisherman's Union to join him in a National government in 1917. He resigned in 1918, retiring to England and entering the House of Lords, having been made a peer.

* * *