After his father’s early death from a heart attack, Philip Morris, who has died aged 88, launched the Harrogate branch of the British Heart Foundation.
His many fundraising activities included flag days and a second hand shop, but he ensured Harrogate would receive most of the sums, including defibrillators in the town centre, stores and public buildings.
He raised the funds for a British Heart Nurse in Harrogate, today’s Specialist Nurse Team, and received a Lifetime Service Award for establishing and leading the BHF Harrogate branch for 43 years.
Morris was a colourful businessman, having established Suedecraft in Otley, Yorkshire, which became a fashionable brand in the swinging 60s, and built a chain of its retail outlets throughout Britain. He sold the business to a larger company in around 1970.
Born in Bradford in 1932, the only child of Max and Phyllis Morris, he was educated at Rugby School, and would sport his Rugby school tie on every important occasion. He even had a prayer shawl and kippah customised with the Rugby School colours. Morris chose to be conscripted into the British Army rather than accept a place at Oxford University to study Law. He joined the Royal Artillery, achieving the rank of Captain, and was stationed in Paderborn, Germany. There he also learned to ski, and this turned into an annual holiday passion which lasted until he was almost 80.
Morris served in the Territorial Army where he made life-long friends from Yorkshire with whom he enjoyed family Boxing Day hikes in the Yorkshire Dales for nearly 60 years. He briefly worked at his father’s raincoat factory before establishing Suedecraft.
He devoted much of his time and creative energies to causes close to his heart. His first charity was for the Cancer Department of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. The Committee — mainly from the surrounding district of Bradford — organised successful fundraising balls at the Midland Hotel with various themes each year, plus a cabaret.
He served Harrogate Hebrew Congregation for 50 years in various key roles. He also headed preparations for the 100th Anniversary of the Harrogate Jewish community in 2019, with Chief Rabbi Mirvis, the Lord Mayor of Harrogate, MPs and other dignitaries.
Morris promoted Holocaust Memorial Day in the Jewish and wider community. Apart from memorialising the six million victims, it sought to educate younger generations to value tolerance and understanding, and be aware of the diabolical consequences of bigotry.
He was a director of Harrogate NHS Trust from 1990-1995 and the Audrey & Stanley Burton Charitable Trust for several decades, supervising the funding and support of the arts in Yorkshire, including the Leeds Stanley & Audrey Burton Theatre and Gallery. A lover of the arts, he took pleasure in attending the annual Harrogate Festival.
He married Ann Rakusen, daughter of Lily and Manny Rakusen, Managing Director of the Rakusen Matzo business in Leeds on November 4, 1959. They had three children, Katie, Michael and David. Morris established Unimerge, which specialised in mergers and acquisitions, and Chartclose, a business development consultancy. He was involved in the building industry, computer software and other entrepreneurial ventures.
In the 1990s, he established with Mike Dawson Larchfield Manor Residential Home in Harrogate. In 2004 he was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours List, for a lifetime of service to the British Heart Foundation and for those with heart disease.
Morris had a sharp Yorkshire sense of humour, and enjoyed a variety of sports. He even invented his own sport. In the early 1970s on a beach in Spain, he spat out his cherry stone along the beach and challenged his friends and family to spit theirs further than his! On his return to Harrogate he invited friends to participate in the first ever World Cherry Stone Spitting Championship. In 1974 the winner, Malcolm Dunlop, was actually registered in the Guinness Book of Records, and Yorkshire TV covered the event.
He is survived by Ann, their children, 15 grandchildren, and 16 great grandchildren.
DAVID MORRIS
Philip Morris: born April 18, 1932. Died August 3, 2020
