Lyndon Henry Morris

[1] He was the son of Reverend Ernest Edwin Morris, the vicar of Ashbourne and Deacon of Durham in the Southwell Cathedral,[2] and Josephine Anna Bolton.

As a young man he studied as a solicitor, and later decided to join the army, first serving with the Territorials as a regular and later as a captain in the 4th Battalion King's Shropshire Light Infantry.

Notably he also garnered the respect of the inmates, and in 1932 was instrumental in calming disorder that had broken out at Dartmoor Prison (he was chief constable by this time, and had attended with a large contingent of officers from the Devon County Constabulary and Plymouth City Police.)

His position in the Prison Service put Morris in close contact with the Devon, Cornwall and Somerset Constabularies, and in 1931 decided to pursue a career in the police.

Morris was appointed chief constable of the Devon County Constabulary on 11 February 1931[7] succeeding Captain Herbert Reginald Vyvyan, who had retired from the force.

[8] The Devon Standing Joint Committee whittled down the large number of hopefuls to only three, with Morris beating Mr Freeman Newton, Chief Constable of Herefordshire, and Captain J.C.T.

[citation needed] In October 1931, Morris was a passenger in a patrol car which collided with 19 year old cyclist Alfred Francis Edgcombe on the main Totnes to Plymouth road.