Sir William Sinclair Marris KCSI

Order of the Star of India

The Most Exalted Order of the Star of India is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1861. The Order includes members of three classes:# Knight Grand Commander # Knight Commander # Companion...

, KCIE

Order of the Indian Empire

The Most Eminent Order of the Indian Empire is an order of chivalry founded by Queen Victoria in 1878. The Order includes members of three classes:#Knight Grand Commander #Knight Commander #Companion...

, HON. D. LITT. (DURHAM), HON, LITT.D. (N.Z.) (9 October 1873 – 12 December 1945) was a member of the Indian Civil Service during the British Raj. Later he became Vice-Chancellor & Warden of the University of Durham.

Education and Life

Born on 9 October 1873, Marris was educated at Wanganui and Canterbury College in New Zealand, and later studied at Christ Church, Oxford. He passed first in the I.C.S. (open) examination in 1895.

He married Eleanor Mary Fergusson, in 1905, who died a year later in 1906. After retirement from the Indian Civil Service, Marris returned to Northern England and remarried to Elizabeth Wilford in 1934, whom he had known from his childhood in New Zealand.

Following his return from India he resigned as a member of the Council of the Secretary of India to take a principleship at Armstrong College in Newcastle-on-Tyne, he was Vice-Chancellor of Durham University from 1932 to 1934. He retired in 1937 and settled in Cirencester

Cirencester

Cirencester is a market town in east Gloucestershire, England, 93 miles west northwest of London. Cirencester lies on the River Churn, a tributary of the River Thames, and is the largest town in the Cotswold District. It is the home of the Royal Agricultural College, the oldest agricultural...

, Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire

Gloucestershire is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn, and the entire Forest of Dean....

, where at Dollar House he died on 12 December 1945.

Indian Civil Service

Sir William Sinclair Marris served in the Indian Civil Service in several positions

• Assistant Magistrate, U.P. 1896
• Under Secretary to Government, U.P. 1899
• Under Secretary to Government of India. 1901
• Deputy Secretary to Government of India, 1904
• Magistrate and Collector; Aligarh, 1910
• Member Executive Committee Coronation Durbar, 1912
• Acting Secretary to Government of India, Home Department, 1913
• Inspector-General of Police, U.P. 1916
• Joint Secretary to Government of India 1919-1921
• Reforms Commissioner, 1919–20
• Governor of Assam, 1921–22
• Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, 1922–28
• Member of Council of India, 1928–29

Publications

Sir William Marris authored and translated several publications including

• The Odes of Horace. By Horace
  Horace
  Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
  
  , (translated Sir William Marris). Published London, New York [etc.]: H.Frowde, 1912 (books I-IV and the Saecular hymn translated into English verse)
• The Iliad of Homer. By Homer
  Homer
  In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
  
  , (translated Sir William Marris). Published London, New York [etc.]: Oxford University Press, 1934
• The Odyssey of Homer. By Homer
  Homer
  In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
  
  , translated Sir William Marris). Published London, New York [etc.]: Oxford University Press, 1925

• Catullus. By Catallus, (translated Sir William Marris. Published Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924
• India: the political problem By Sir William Marris. Published Nottingham, 1930?

Vice-Chancellor & Warden of the University of Durham

From 1932 to 1934, Marris held the position of Vice-Chancellor & Warden of the University of Durham