Flight Lieutenant Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in air forces that use the Royal Air Force (RAF) system of ranks, especially in Commonwealth countries. It has a NATO rank code of OF-2. Flight lieutenant is abbreviated as Flt Lt in the Indi ...

Walter McDonald Morison (26 November 1919 – 26 March 2009) was a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...

pilot who became a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of ...

and was sent to

Colditz Colditz () is a small town in the district of Leipzig, in Saxony, Germany. It is best known for Colditz Castle, the site of the Oflag IV-C POW camp for officers in World War II. Geography Colditz is situated in the Leipzig Bay, southeast of the ...

for attempting to steal an enemy aircraft during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

Early life

He was born at Beckenham, Kent. While in his first year at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge or Oxford. ...

, the Second World War began; he volunteered the same day.

Royal Air Force service

Morison joined the

at the outbreak of war in September 1939, and was trained as a pilot (he already knew how to fly a glider). He was commissioned as a

pilot officer Pilot officer (Plt Off officially in the RAF; in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly P/O in all services, and still often used in the RAF) is the lowest commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many other Commonwealth countrie ...

on 30 November 1940 and assigned to No. 241 Squadron, flying

Westland Lysander The Westland Lysander is a British army co-operation and liaison aircraft produced by Westland Aircraft that was used immediately before and during the Second World War. After becoming obsolete in the army co-operation role, the aircraft's ...

s. He was soon transferred to a training unit as an instructor, before joining No. 103 Squadron in May 1942. On the night of 5/6 June 1942, while flying a

Wellington Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by m ...

bomber on his third mission and the first as captain, he was hit by another Wellington X3339 from 156 Squadron, piloted by Sgt Guy Chamberlin RAFVR. He was the sole survivor of the five-man crew. Coincidentally, Morison had been Chamberlin's instructor at RAF Lossiemouth around the beginning of 1942. All the crew of X3339 were killed and are buried in the same row at the Reischwald Forest War Cemetery near Kleve in Germany. He became a

(POW) and was sent to

Stalag Luft III , partof = ''Luftwaffe'' , location = Sagan, Lower Silesia, Nazi Germany (now Żagań, Poland) , image = , caption = Model of the set used to film the movie ''The Great Escape.'' It depicts a smaller version of a single compound in ''Stalag ...

at Sagan. He was promoted to

flight lieutenant Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in air forces that use the Royal Air Force (RAF) system of ranks, especially in Commonwealth countries. It has a NATO rank code of OF-2. Flight lieutenant is abbreviated as Flt Lt in the Indi ...

on 30 November 1942 whilst being held as a POW. On 12 June 1943, Morison and 23 or 25 others escaped from the camp during a delousing break. Twenty-two prisoners left the camp with two "guards", actually two fellow POWs in bogus German uniforms. Once outside, the group split up. The others were quickly recaptured, but he and Flight Lieutenant Lorne Welch, wearing fake uniforms, walked to a nearby airfield and attempted to steal an aircraft, a

Junkers W 34 The Junkers W 34 was a German-built, single-engine, passenger and transport aircraft. Developed in the 1920s, it was taken into service in 1926. The passenger version could take a pilot and five passengers. The aircraft was developed from the ...

. They had to abandon the attempt when the rightful crew appeared to fly away the aircraft. The next day, they returned and tried to steal a biplane, but were caught and eventually sent to

Oflag IV-C Oflag IV-C, often referred to by its location at Colditz Castle, overlooking Colditz, Saxony, was one of the most noted German Army prisoner-of-war camps for captured enemy officers during World War II; ''Oflag'' is a shortening of ''Offiziersl ...

. He was liberated from Colditz by the American army in April 1945.

Post-war

Following the war, Morison qualified as a chartered accountant at the

Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) is a professional membership organisation that promotes, develops and supports chartered accountants and students around the world. As of July 2022, it has over 198,000 members ...

. He was articled at Morison, a firm established by his great uncle. Morison then worked at Coopers Bros, the firm that became Coopers & Lybrand, before returning to his family firm, Morison Stoneham. He led the firm as a senior partner through a period of great change from 1960 to 1981 before retiring. Whilst Morison Stoneham was acquired by Tenon (later known as RSM Tenon) one of his legacies that still exists today is

Morison International Morison Global (previously Morison KSi) is a global association of professional service firms (accounting, auditing, tax and business consulting). The association has over 150 member firms in more than 80 countries. Morison Global's status as an ...

Walter Morison November 1919 - March 2009
/ref> a global association of professional service firms (accountants, auditors, tax and business advisers). He wrote an account of his life during the war, ''Flak and Ferrets - One Way to Colditz''. Morison died on 26 March 2009.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Morison, Walter 1919 births 2009 deaths Royal Air Force officers English aviators British World War II pilots British World War II bomber pilots Survivors of aviation accidents or incidents British World War II prisoners of war World War II prisoners of war held by Germany British escapees Prisoners of war held at Colditz Castle English accountants English people of Scottish descent People from Bromley 20th-century English businesspeople