Morris Cargill CD (10 June 1914 – 8 April 2000), was a Jamaican politician, lawyer, businessman, planter, journalist and novelist. He was also a columnist for the '' Jamaican Gleaner''.

Biography

Cargill was born in

Kingston Kingston may refer to: Places * List of places called Kingston, including the six most populated: ** Kingston, Jamaica ** Kingston upon Hull, England ** City of Kingston, Victoria, Australia ** Kingston, Ontario, Canada ** Kingston upon Thames, ...

British Jamaica The Crown Colony of Jamaica and Dependencies was a British colony from 1655, when it was captured by the English Protectorate from the Spanish Empire. Jamaica became a British colony from 1707 and a Crown colony in 1866. The Colony was primar ...

and educated at Munro College, a prestigious Jamaican secondary school, and the

Stowe School The Stowe School is a public school (English private boarding school) for pupils aged 13–18 in the countryside of Stowe, England. It was opened on 11 May, 1923 at Stowe House, a Grade I Heritage Estate belonging to the British Crown. ...

in England, Cargill was articled as a solicitor in 1937. During World War II, he worked for the Crown Film Unit in

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

. After the war, he played a role in the development of the coffee liqueur

Tia Maria Tia Maria is a dark coffee liqueur made in Italy using Jamaican coffee beans. The main ingredients are coffee beans, South Jamaican rum, vanilla, and sugar, blended to an alcoholic content of 20%. History Tia Maria was originally made in ...

. Returning to the Caribbean he worked as a newspaper editor in

Trinidad Trinidad is the larger, more populous island of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the country. The island lies off the northeastern coast of Venezuela and sits on the continental shelf of South America. It is the southernmost island in ...

, and, having acquired a banana plantation in Jamaica, began a career as a columnist for the ''

Gleaner A gleaner(Noun) is a person who engages in gleaning, utilizing crops and resources left behind in a harvest. Newspapers *''The Gleaner'', a newspaper of record in Kingston, Jamaica, published by: **The Gleaner Company, a newspaper publishing enter ...

'' newspapers in 1953 which was to last, with some interruptions, until his death. Until the late 1970s, his articles appeared under the pseudonym Thomas Wright. In 1958, he was elected to the parliament of the

Federation of the West Indies A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governing status of the co ...

, as a candidate of the

Jamaica Labour Party The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP; ) is one of the two major political parties in Jamaica, the other being the People's National Party (PNP). While its name might suggest that it is a social democratic party (as is the case for "Labour" parties in se ...

, and served as deputy leader of the opposition in that legislature for the next four years. In 1964 he persuaded his friend

Ian Fleming Ian Lancaster Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 August 1964) was a British writer, best known for his postwar ''James Bond'' series of spy novels. Fleming came from a wealthy family connected to the merchant bank Robert Fleming & Co., and his ...

to write the introductory article for a guidebook to Jamaica called ''Ian Fleming introduces Jamaica''. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, he collaborated with novelist John Hearne, under the pseudonym "John Morris", on a series of three thrillers – ''Fever Grass'', ''The Candywine Development'', and ''The Checkerboard Caper''—about an imaginary Jamaican secret service. Cargill makes an appearance, in the surprising guise of a high court judge, at the end of Fleming's 1965 novel '' The Man with the Golden Gun''. For two years in the late 1970s, Cargill left Jamaica because of his opposition to the government of

Michael Manley Michael Norman Manley (10 December 1924 – 6 March 1997) was a Jamaican politician who served as the fourth prime minister of Jamaica, from 1972 to 1980, and from 1989 to 1992. Manley championed a democratic socialist program, and has been ...

, returning in 1980 to join the campaign against Manley. During this period, Cargill lived in the United States and worked for the publisher

Lyle Stuart Lyle Stuart (born Lionel Simon; August 11, 1922June 24, 2006) was an American author and independent publisher of controversial books. He worked as a newsman for years before launching his publishing firm, Lyle Stuart, Incorporated. A former pa ...

, editing a study of the

Third Reich Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

in Germany called ''A Gallery of Nazis'', and writing a memoir called ''Jamaica Farewell'' (an expanded version of which was reissued in 1995).

Assassination attempt

On 26 May 1969, Keith Clarke shot Cargill in the buttocks, although Cargill survived the attack. Around the same time, Clarke successfully shot and killed industrial chemist Julius Walenta.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cargill, Morris 20th-century Jamaican lawyers 1914 births 2000 deaths Jamaica Labour Party politicians Jamaican columnists Jamaican expatriates in the United Kingdom Jamaican expatriates in Trinidad and Tobago Jamaican journalists Jamaican male writers Jamaican people of European descent Jamaican planters Members of the Federal Parliament of the West Indies Federation People educated at Munro College