Leonard Ray Morgan was the first permanent Secretary for Education in the Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland.

Early life and education

Morgan, whose father was a Sergeant in the Royal Artillery, was born 1894 in Montrose, Angus

Montrose, Angus

Montrose is a coastal resort town and former royal burgh in Angus, Scotland. It is situated 38 miles north of Dundee between the mouths of the North and South Esk rivers...

, Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. He emigrated to Rhodesia at about the age of eight years and spent the rest of his life there. He was educated at Prince Edward High School in Salisbury, Rhodesia

Rhodesia

Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...

.

He served with the British forces in the East Africa campaign in the 1914-18 World War, and possibly with the Royal Flying Corps

Royal Flying Corps

The Royal Flying Corps was the over-land air arm of the British military during most of the First World War. During the early part of the war, the RFC's responsibilities were centred on support of the British Army, via artillery co-operation and photographic reconnaissance...

 in France. He subsequently won a Rhodes Scholarship

Rhodes Scholarship

The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...

 to St John's College, Oxford

St John's College, Oxford

__FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of...

, where he obtained a degree in civil engineering. During his time at Oxford he was a close personal friend of the poet, Robert Graves

Robert Graves

Robert von Ranke Graves 24 July 1895 – 7 December 1985 was an English poet, translator and novelist. During his long life he produced more than 140 works...

 (a fellow student at St. John's College) with whom he remained in contact for the remainder of his life.

Career

While in England he met, and subsequently married, a Swiss French governess, working for Lord Halifax, Mlle Madeleine ('Madi') Petitmaitre, the daughter of a butcher from Yverdon in the Canton de Vaud. They returned to Rhodesia where he took up a schools career as a mathematics teacher. He advanced rapidly and was successively Headmaster of two famous Rhodesian schools; Milton High School

Milton High School, Bulawayo

Milton High School is a government all-boys high school located in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. It was the first government all-boys school established in Bulawayo. It was founded in 1910 and is named after Sir William Milton, administrator of the British South Africa Company. The school's motto is Greek...

 in Bulawayo

Bulawayo

Bulawayo is the second largest city in Zimbabwe after the capital Harare, with an estimated population in 2010 of 2,000,000. It is located in Matabeleland, 439 km southwest of Harare, and is now treated as a separate provincial area from Matabeleland...

 and Chaplin High School in Gwelo (where he was Headmaster of the future Prime Minister of Rhodesia, Ian Smith

Ian Smith

Ian Douglas Smith GCLM ID was a politician active in the government of Southern Rhodesia, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Rhodesia, Zimbabwe Rhodesia and Zimbabwe from 1948 to 1987, most notably serving as Prime Minister of Rhodesia from 13 April 1964 to 1 June 1979...

).

He was then transferred to the Ministry of Education and subsequently appointed as the first permanent Secretary for Education in the Federal Government. Morgan modelled the Rhodesian school system on the English grammar schools and they were considered to be some of the finest state schools in the world at the time. He also played a prominent role in the advancement of African (i.e. black) education during the years of Federation (1953–1961).

Marriage and children

While in England he met, and subsequently married, a Swiss French governess, working for Lord Halifax, Mlle Madeleine ('Madi') Petitmaitre, the daughter of a butcher from Yverdon in the Canton de Vaud. The couple had two daughters, Anne (b. 1926) and Denise Helene (b. 1931).

Death and afterward

Morgan died in 1967. Morgan High School

Morgan High School Harare

Morgan High School is a state high school in Harare, Zimbabwe.-History:The school was named after Leonard Ray Morgan, the first permanent Secretary for Education in the Federation of Rhodesia & Nyasaland.-Notable former students:...

 in Harare

Harare

Harare before 1982 known as Salisbury) is the largest city and capital of Zimbabwe. It has an estimated population of 1,600,000, with 2,800,000 in its metropolitan area . Administratively, Harare is an independent city equivalent to a province. It is Zimbabwe's largest city and its...

was named after him.