Stanley Morris

Biographical information

RolesCompeted in Olympic Games
SexMale
Full nameStanley George•Morris
Used nameStanley•Morris
Born30 November 1919 in Handsworth, Birmingham, England (GBR)
Died31 October 2010 in ?, Gloucestershire (GBR)
NOC Great Britain

Biography

Stanley Morris was the son of James Morris a well known Birmingham jeweller and silversmith who worked as an assistant to Georgie Gaskin, wife of Arethur Haskin, at the turn of the 20th century. Stanley himself was tutored by Bernard Cuzner at the Vittoria Street School for Jewellers and Silversmiths and also at the Birmingham Municipal School of art.

Morris and Cuzner were later to receive an Honorary Mention for their joint entry into the 1948 Olympic Painting, Applied Arts category entitled Silver Symbolic Torch. It was later commissioned by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths, one of the major guilds, and subsequently made by Morris and engraved by William Biddle. It went on display at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge in 1950 during an exhibition sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths. At around 46 cm, the torch is significantly smaller than the one actually used for the torch relay. It appears on the cover of the 1949 edition of Cuzner’s book A Silversmith’s Manual.

In the 1930s Morris won the Messenger Prize, John Henry Chamberlain Silver medal prize, and two Goldsmiths Company Scholarships. He received several commissions and the one from the Salters Company to make “Fluted Salt” based on a Cyril Shiner design for the 1951 Festival of Britain is a coveted work. And many of his works were show during the Birmingham Gold and Silver exhibition in 1973 to mark 200 years of the Birmingham Assay Office. One of his exhibits, “Crozier Head”, was made in 1938 when he was just 19 and is probably his best known work and is on display at the Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery. He used the money from one of his scholarships to buy the silver to make it. Working from his premises at King Alfred’s Place in Birmingham after World War Two, he produced many ecclesiastical, domestic and civic works and many of his church works are still in use in the Birmingham area, Morris obtained his own Silver Makers’ Mark from the Assay office in February 1961.

Results

Games Discipline (Sport) / Event NOC / Team Pos Medal As
1948 Summer Olympics Art Competitions GBR Stanley Morris
Painting, Applied Arts, Open (Olympic) Bernard Cuzner HM