James Morris

James Morris (c1854-1921)

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1921 Obituary

"Morris.— On November 22, at his residence, Gorringe Road, Eastbourne, Mr. James Morris, senior partner in the firm of E. Morris and Sons, ironmongers, plumbers, and gas and hot-water engineers, of 21 Seaside Road, Eastbourne, aged sixty-seven. Mr. Morris was a native of Lewes; but had lived in Eastbourne since about 1854. The business with which he "was connected was one of the oldest established ironmongery businesses in the country, having been founded by a Mr. Polhill, at Lewes, as long ago as 1760. In 1806 Mr. Polhill was joined by Mr. Gibson, and, upon the death of the former, Mr. Gibson took into partnership Mr. James Sturt. In 1820 Mr. Ebenezer Morris, the grandfather of Mr. James Morris, took over the whole business, including the foundry, and about thirty years later opened a branch in South Street, Eastbourne, which, in 1854, was removed to the present premises, which at that time stood in the corner of a field. Mr. Ebenezer Morris died in 1888, and the business was continued by one of his sons, Mr. James B. Morris, under the style of E. Morris & Sons, and subsequently the concern passed into the hands of three of Mr. James B. Morris’s sons — namely, James, Reginald, and Henry, of whom the last-named alone survives. Mr. James Morris was in his younger days a keen sportsman, rowing and swimming being his principal hobbies. A proof of his prowess as an oarsman is furnished by over 100 silver cups and other trophies which he won. In 1884 he stroked the champion four-oared galley of the South Coast, and as a sculler, he proved himself a first-class oarsman on salt water. He was for very many years captain of the local rowing club, and was also on the local committee of the R.N. Lifeboat Institution until the time of his death. He was for eighteen years a member of the old Volunteer Force. Mr. Morris is survived by a widow, one son, and two daughters.'

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