Dr A. D. Morris: The Life and Times of James Parkinson

Papers of A.D. Morris relating to his intended biography of James Parkinson (1755-1824).

Morris worked on his biography of Parkinson over a number of years after his retirement in 1955. The material is for the most part undated but probably originates from the 1960s and the 1970s. Editing for the final book appears to have taken place during the 1980s, with the involvement of Bill Bynum and F. Clifford Rose. This collection includes a significant amount of background research material gathered by Morris, some of which is now hard to come by.

The book was eventually published as James Parkinson: His Life and Times by A. D Morris, edited by F. Clifford Rose (Boston: Birkhäuser, 1989).

The chapter titles, chapter arrangement and content of the published version differ somewhat from the synopsis, typescript and draft chapters in this collection.

A review of the book was published in the Journal of Neurology (1991) 238: 129-130. It refers to Morris' account of The Hoxton Madhouses being included in the typescript Morris left at his death. This appears to be what is labelled chapter 9 in PP/ADM/2 but the first few pages are missing.

1960s-1980s

4 boxes

Synopses, draft typescript, bibliography and biographical information, followed by individual chapter typescripts with research notes.

A. D. Morris was born in Wales in 1889. He studied medicine at the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire and University College London, qualifying MRCS and LRCP in 1915.

He joined the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War and saw service in Mesopotamia and hospitals in Bombay and Calcutta.

In 1920 he obtained the MD from the University of Brussels, and his MB and BS from London in 1924.

After a short period working in Wales, Morris, from early 1916 was Assistant Medical Officer at Hammersmith Infirmary, before joining the Army. In the first half of the 1920s he was Assistant Medical Officer at Kensington Infirmary. From 1926 to 1934 he was Deputy Medical Superintendent at Hammersmith Hospital.

In 1935 Morris became Medical Superintendent of St Leonard's and St Matthew's hopsitals in Shoreditch, with responsibilities for medical, surgical, gynaecological and children's beds as well as maternity and mental wards. He worked there until his retirement in 1955.

In 1952 Morris became interested in James Parkinson, who had once lived in Shoreditch and been parish doctor to the workhouse which had stood where the St Leonard's hospital was later built. He began researching into Parkinson's life and made contact with some of his descendents as well as developing an interest in geology that mirrored Parkinson's own.

After retiring in 1955, marrying in 1957, and moving to Eastbourne in 1960, Morris worked steadily on his biography of Parkinson. Although he never finished the book there was sufficient material to work with and an edited version was published in 1989. Additional information about Morris and the writing of the biography can be found in the book which is available in the Wellcome Library.

Originally deposited at the Wellcome Academic Unit in Oxford and transferred to the Wellcome Library in 1996 with the rest of the Oxford Unit collections.