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Alfred Murison

Alfred Murison, the new Rector gained a Ph.D. from Glasgow University in 1930 and was awarded an LL.D. by Aberdeen University in 1951.  In addition he was the holder of no less than three First Class Honours Degrees from the University of Aberdeen.

Dr Murison was born in Fraserburgh on 3^rd September 1891, the son of a jeweller, and educated at Fraserburgh Academy.  Upon entering University with a prize as first bursar it became clear that he was to be a brilliant student and the ‘best all-round man of the year’.  He gained a record three First Class Honours in little more than six years and this is recorded in the University roll of service to 1954 as being unequalled.

He started his teaching career as Assistant in Mathematics and Science at Selkirk High School and was then appointed Principal Teacher of Mathematics and Second Master at Vale of Leven Academy.  While in that area of Scotland he also took on the duty of Principal of Technical Evening Classes at Alexandria.

Dr Murison did not stay long at the Miller Institution leaving in August 1924 to take up appointment as Rector of Hamilton Academy.  A letter to Hamilton Academy seeking information resulted in a reply from Hamilton Grammar suggesting this to be the new name of the school.  Unfortunately this school lost many of its records in refurbishment work and they could not help.  Information from John Dallas indicated that Dr Murison became the first Rector of Marr College, Troon after his time as Rector of at Hamilton.  He also remembered hearing that, due to a dispute at Troon,  Dr Murison was some years without students. This post at Marr College was considered the finest scholastic appointment in Scotland at that time.

Information from Mr George Bone, the present Rector of Marr College, confirms the  information provided by John Dallas.  It would appear that the Marr Trustees and the local authority were in dispute for no less than five years and for all of that time only the Rector and the janitor were in the school.

It is not entirely clear what Alfred Murison did over this period though he was certainly active in education committees. He did advise his janitor to put the time to good use and this he did.  It is said that the janitor studied to a high level, and he may even have obtained a degree, over this long period without students. 

A number of other honours came Dr Murison’s way including being made a J.P. for Ayrshire, a Fellow of the Educational Institute of Scotland in 1949 and a C.B.E. in 1953.  It was at the Annual Congress of the Educational Institute of Scotland in 1951 that he was presented by his colleagues with his LL.D. robes.  In 1952-53 the E.I.S. elected him President and in 1954 further E.I.S. honour and work came his way through his election to the position of Vice-Chairman of the National Joint Council and Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee of the E.I.S.

It is noted in the University archive that he joined the Guns of Court, O.T.C. in November 1915 and served at home with the RAF from 1915-19 reaching the rank of Corporal Instructor Gunnery.  In 1915 he was appointed to the First Division Home Civil Service, Ministry of Labour, but the war, it appears, interrupted his career.  The archive further notes he was Chairman of the Class Reunion held in December 1946.

Dr Murison  held positions of  importance and high esteem in education in Scotland and in the belief that his period as Rector at the Miller must have had some influence in the development of such a brilliant career the introduction, given by the Chancellor of Aberdeen University, at Dr Murison’s capping as a Doctor of Laws is reproduced on the following page. 

‘The Promotor then presented Alfred Ross Murison, M.A.., Ph.D., F.E.I.S., principal of Marr College, Troon, Ayrshire, of whom he said:

Alfred Ross Murison is a distinguished son of the North-East of Scotland, and one of our own graduates.  Born in Fraserburgh sixty years ago, he received his schooling in the Academy there, and proceeded to Aberdeen University in 1908 as a student in the Faculty of Arts.  In 1912 he graduated M.A. with first class honours in Classics, gaining additional distinction in Roman History. To these attainments, he added first class honours in Mathematics and Natural Philosophy in 1914, and first class honours in Economic Science in 1919, thus achieving the unique distinction of a triple first.

He was appointed to the Home Civil Service in 1915.  During the World War of 1914-1919, however, in the tradition of first-class minds since Socrates, Dr. Murison also served as hoplite in the Devil’s Own till he took the wings of an avenging angel in the Royal Air Force.

After the War, Dr Murison, having learned much himself of life in many fields, elected to follow a career in teaching, and received his first appointment as principal Mathematics Master in the Vale of Leven Academy in 1919.  Pro­motion came quickly in 1920, as rector, at the unusually early age of twenty-nine, of the Miller Institute, Thurso, and of Hamilton Academy in 1924.  In 1930 he was appointed first principal of Marr College, Troon, where he continues to serve with high distinction.  He graduated Doctor of Philosophy in the Univer­sity of Glasgow in 1930, and it is a pleasant and appropriate thought that Sir Hector Hetherington should he joined with us in our ceremonies to-day.

In 1949 the Educational Institute of Scotland elected Dr. Murison to a Fellowship in recognition of his services to the teaching profession.  He is a member of the Council of the Institute and of its Executive Committee, and is Convener of its Parliamentary Sub-Committee.  Dr. Murison occupies the responsible and delicate office of a vice-chairman of the National Joint Council to deal with salaries of teachers in Scotland and advise the Secretary of State for Scotland in framing Teachers’ Salary Regulations. Recent increases in the salaries of Scottish teachers and the betterment of their conditions of service have been due in no small measure to Dr. Murison’s persistent and unpublicised efforts in negotiation and diplomacy.  These efforts still continue.

Finally, again in the classical tradition, he is no ascetic.  His conversation is inspired and inspiring, and often has its setting, as had much Socratic wisdom, at the supper party.

A complete man, of whom this University is justly proud, I present Dr. Mur­ison to you, Chancellor, as a worthy recipient of the degree of Doctor of Laws.’

Also transcribed in full here is his obituary carried in the Aberdeen University Review of 1968.

‘Alfred R. Murison, C.B.E. (M.A. 1912, PH.D., LL.D.),a triple honours graduate of the University, died very suddenly at his home in Glasgow on 21 February 1968, aged seventy-six.  He graduated M.A. in 1912 with first-class honours in Advanced Roman History and the classics.  In 1914, he obtained first-class honours in Mathe­matics and Philosophy and in 1919 he gained first-class honours in Economic Science.

Between times, with the outbreak of World War I, Dr. Murison had been in the home Civil Service in 1915, and later joined the Royal Flying Corps, to become before war’s end the RAF.  After the war, he became principal mathe­matics teacher in Vale of Leven Academy.  He was again only twenty-nine when, in 1920, he became rector of the Miller Institute, Thurso.  His next appointment was as rector at Hamilton Academy in 1924, and he had a singular honour in appointment in 1930 as the first rector of the new Marr College, Troon.  In 1930, Glasgow University honoured him with a Ph.D., and Aberdeen University con­ferred the LL.D. in 1951.

For his many services to education, Dr Murison was made a C.B.E. in 1953.  That same year, after a period as a member of the executive, be became president of the Educational Institute of Scotland.

Part of his services to education were as vice-chairman of the National Joint Council on Salaries.  He was prominent in the fight for widows’ pensions.  Dr Murison retired from Mrr College in 1957.