Air Marshal Sir Alec Morris
Chief Engineer of the RAF who ensured sterling support for UK forces during the Falklands War
AIR MARSHAL SIR ALEC MORRIS, who has died aged 92, was an engineer officer who had a varied career in the field of signals that included guided weapons, electronic warfare and strategic communications, before his appointment as the RAF’S Chief Engineer.
In August 1979 he was appointed Air Officer Engineering at HQ Strike Command, responsible for all the RAF’S front line forces based in the United Kingdom. In addition to covering the many operational squadrons, the RAF’S early warning, reporting and control organisation for air defence was being radically overhauled with new radars, secure communications and upgrades. This included the support of a squadron of Shackleton airborne early-warning aircraft.
The advanced Tornado aircraft, with its complex avionics and weapons, entered service in early 1981 and the engineering air and ground support had to be developed and established. Additional support had to be identified to equip the newly built hardened aircraft shelters demanded by Nato to provide protection against air attack.
In February 1981 Morris took up his appointment as the RAF’S chief engineer. The aircraft re-equipment programme, the development of the UK air defence organisation and the introduction of new weapons capabilities occupied much of his time. There was also the continuing need to maintain strategic capabilities such as the tactical nuclear role and communications and support for intelligence gathering.
Following the invasion of the Falkland Islands by Argentine forces on April 2 1982 there was an urgent need to provide an engineering support capability for an operation some 8,000 miles away – including the establishment of a forward airbase at Wideawake Airfield on Ascension Island.
The provision and deployment of ground engineering support was crucial, and aircraft began to arrive within two weeks. Over the next few weeks, the airfield would be host to many more aircraft and their servicing personnel.
Establishing satellite communications with the Task Force, and later direct to the Falklands, was another immediate requirement. RAF engineering staff acted rapidly to establish close links with industry to provide additional capabilities for aircraft. This involved detailed discussions and the urgent development and support of new capabilities for aircraft and weapons, including modifying some aircraft to provide them with an in-flight refuelling capability. Others were equipped with new weapons and communications systems. Morris recognised the vital role played by British industry, and in later years he claimed that what was achieved in support of the Falklands War was the highlight of his long career in the RAF.
Alec Arnold Morris was born on March 11 1926 at Retford, Nottinghamshire, and was educated at the town’s King Edward VI School. He graduated from King’s College London with a degree in Physics in 1945.
He joined the RAF a few months after the end of the war in Europe and was commissioned into the technical branch in December 1945. His early appointments were to support and maintain the ground-based GEE radar navigation aid. In 1952 he completed a one-year postgraduate course in Electronics at Southampton University.
With the Korean War at its height he persuaded the RAF to train him as a pilot. He was awarded his wings in January 1953 before completing a short course to fly the Meteor jet fighter, an unusual path at the time for an engineer officer. He was posted in July 1953 to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough, where his combination of flying and engineering skills was used in the research and development of early jet aircraft and air-to-air missiles. This appointment was followed by two years in the Directorate of Guided Weapons at the Ministry of Supply.
In February 1958 Morris filled an exchange appointment at the HQ of the USAF in the Pentagon, working on technical intelligence. On his return in January 1960 he commanded the communications and signals squadron at RAF Finningley. One of the squadrons, No18, was equipped with the Valiant V-bomber fitted with an array of powerful jammers to interfere with communications and radar. They were initially employed for training purposes, simulating hostile jamming in exercises (and occasionally inadvertently jamming television reception over much of the United Kingdom), but later they added a bomber support role.
After two years on the directing staff of the RAF Staff College, Morris assumed command of the engineering wing of No2 Flying Training School at RAF Syerston. In 1968 he returned to the guided weapons arena as the Deputy Director Guided Weapons responsible for research and development at the Procurement Executive of the Ministry of Technology.
His command of the RAF station at Swanton Morley, the home of the Central Servicing Development Establishment, was cut short when he was promoted to air commodore to fill a senior post that had unexpectedly become vacant. He was made the senior air staff officer at HQ 90 (Signals) Group.
The Group had squadrons tasked to gather intelligence, while other squadrons were responsible for calibrating radar aids for national air traffic control and the ground-based landing aids on airfields.
After attending the Royal College of Defence Studies, Morris returned to the MOD as Director of Signals (Air), an appointment much sought after by engineer officers. His responsibilities included all air and ground-to-air communication systems, airfield landing aids and special signals. In July 1976 he returned to the Procurement Executive as the Director General of Strategic Electronic Systems, responsible for the classified systems based on aircraft and at ground-based signals units in Britain and abroad. He spent three years in this specialist appointment before taking up his senior post at HQ Strike Command.
A man of quiet but determined authority, he took a close interest in the careers and development of junior engineer officers and could often be seen sitting and chatting informally with them on his visits to RAF stations and establishments.
When he retired in July 1983 he joined the Air Weapons Division of British Aerospace as the executive for equipment before becoming a senior executive for business development at British Aerospace (Dynamics) Ltd. He retired from this role in 1991.
Morris was appointed CB in 1979 and KBE in 1982. He was elected a Fellow of the Institute of Electrical Engineers in 1971 and was a past president of the Society of Electronic and Radio Technicians; he was made an Honorary Fellow of the Society in 1982. In 1989 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.
He was the first president of the RAF Signal Officers’ Dinner Club on its formation in 1994 and was chairman of the British Wireless Club. Morris settled in Bath, where he enjoyed his large garden, and where in 1997 he became president of the Bath and County Club.
Alec Morris married Moyna Boyle in 1946. She died in 2000 and he is survived by their twin son and daughter.