John Sinclair Morrison who wrote under the name of J. S. Morrison, was an English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 classicist

Classics

Classics is the branch of the Humanities comprising the languages, literature, philosophy, history, art, archaeology and other culture of the ancient Mediterranean world ; especially Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome during Classical Antiquity Classics (sometimes encompassing Classical Studies or...

 whose work led to the reconstruction of an Athenian

Athens

Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...

 Trireme

Trireme

A trireme was a type of galley, a Hellenistic-era warship that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greeks and Romans.The trireme derives its name from its three rows of oars on each side, manned with one man per oar...

, an ancient oared warship.

Born in 1913, Morrison was professor

Professor

A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

 and head of the classics department at the University of Durham from 1945 to 1950. He was tutor

Tutor

A tutor is a person employed in the education of others, either individually or in groups. To tutor is to perform the functions of a tutor.-Teaching assistance:...

 at Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

, from 1950 to 1960, then vice-master of Churchill College

Churchill College, Cambridge

Churchill College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.In 1958, a Trust was established with Sir Winston Churchill as its Chairman of Trustees, to build and endow a college for 60 fellows and 540 Students as a national and Commonwealth memorial to Winston Churchill; its...

, from 1960 to 1965, when he became the first President

President

A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

 of University College

Wolfson College, Cambridge

Wolfson College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. Wolfson is one of a small number of Cambridge colleges which admit only students over the age of 21. The majority of students at the college are postgraduates, with around 15% studying undergraduate...

, later renamed Wolfson College.

He was considered an expert on the Greek trireme, the oared warship of the Athenian classical golden age, and is best known as one of the founders in 1982, with Charles Willink

Sir Charles William Willink, 2nd Baronet

Sir Charles William Willink, 2nd Baronet was an English classical scholar, teacher and baronet. He succeeded his father Sir Henry Willink as Baronet Willink on his death in 1973, and was himself succeeded on his death by his son Sir Edward Daniel Willink.-Life:Sir Henry's eldest son, Charles won a...

, another classics teacher, John Coates

John Coates (naval architect)

John Francis Coates, OBE was a British naval architect and academic best known for his work on the study of the construction of Ancient Greek triremes. His research led to the construction of the first working replicas of triremes and gave a greater understanding of how they were built and used...

, a naval architect, and Frank Welsh, a banker, the Trireme Trust, to test his theories about the Athenian trireme by building a full-size reconstruction. In 1984, the Greek Government promised funding, and in 1987 the Olympias

Olympias (trireme)

Olympias is a reconstruction of an ancient Athenian trireme and an important example of experimental archaeology.She was constructed from 1985 to 1987 by a shipbuilder in Piraeus. Finance came from the Hellenic Navy and donors such as Frank Welsh . The building was advised by the historians J. S....

was commissioned.

With R. T. Williams, Morrison wrote Greek Oared Ships: 900–322 BC; Long Ships and Round Ships (1980); with John Coates, The Athenian Trireme: the History and Reconstruction of an Ancient Greek Warship (1986); with J. F. Coates, Greek and Roman Oared Warships (1996); and other works.

In 1991 he was awarded the Caird Medal of the National Maritime Museum

National Maritime Museum

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England is the leading maritime museum of the United Kingdom and may be the largest museum of its kind in the world. The historic buildings forming part of the Maritime Greenwich World Heritage Site, it also incorporates the Royal Observatory, Greenwich,...

, jointly with John Coates. He died on 25 October 2000 at the age of 87.