Born in Hanmer Springs, Morrison briefly served in the Royal Air Force before transferring to the RNZAF in 1939.

[2] The town was the site of the Queen Mary Hospital which, during the First World War, was a facility for the treatment of wounded soldiers.

[4] When Morrison arrived in London, his application to join the RAF was declined on the grounds of a weak heart.

A subsequent attempt to join the RAF was successful, and he was accepted for a short service commission in March 1936 on probation,[3][5] and this was confirmed, along with his rank of pilot officer, on 6 January 1937.

[2] In January 1939, Morrison resigned his commission in the RAF[8] and subsequently joined the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF).

[1] Later in the year he was sent to England to join other New Zealand personnel being trained on Vickers Wellington medium bombers.

1 (Islands) Group to co-ordinate the administration of the increasing numbers of units being sent to the Pacific theatre of operations to participate in the Solomons campaign.

During this time, the squadron saw service at Santo, Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and Emirau before finishing its war at Green Island.

[13] He served in a number of staff roles in the postwar period;[1] from June 1946, he was an honorary aide-de-camp to Lieutenant General Bernard Freyberg, the Governor-General of New Zealand, for nearly a year, in 1947, he was based at the Air Department in Wellington as Director of Organisation and Staff Duties, and then served as chairman of the planning executive.

[14][15] In 1950 Morrison went to the United Kingdom to attend the Joint Services Staff College followed by a two-year period of exchange duty with the RAF.

[1] At the time, the RNZAF was in decline, operating dated equipment and the New Zealand government more focussed on its army co-operation role.

[19] For offensive operations, Morrison favoured the acquisition of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom as a strike aircraft for the RNZAF but was unable to secure them before his term as CAS ended.

Four years later a fleet of Douglas A-4 Skyhawks entered service with the RNZAF, improving its offensive capabilities.