Page 55 - The Old Ratcliffian 2015 Magazine

OBITUARIES 55

Chris will be remembered by many as a ‘bon viveur’, and for his hostile interventions from Margaret Thatcher, who was fiercely
love of London and country life. His favourite ‘haunts’ in town proud of BA’s transformation, under her friend Lord King, into
included the ‘Cheshire Cheese’, Simpsons-in-the-Strand, and “the world’s favourite airline”. By one account the prime minister
some of London’s best wine bars along Fleet Street and the left the US ambassador “quite shaken” after an audience at
Strand. Other venues that he most frequented were the ‘Yorker’, No 10, as well as making her views plain to President Reagan.
as it was in Piccadilly, and the ‘Vine’ in Piccadilly Place. A perfect “I don’t think the reigning monarch was brought into it,” Morris
day for Chris would be a good day at the races followed by fine recalled, “but everyone else was.” The criminal case was dropped,
cuisine at dinner, enjoyed with family or friends, and excellent but Morris’s civil action — which took three years, requiring more
wine. than 40 trips to the US — was ultimately successful, collecting
compensation from the rival airlines of almost $300 million.
Chris leaves two sons, Anthony and Dominic, who wish to
remember their father as ‘a great man, a special friend, and Morris was a modest, unflappable operator, of great tenacity
a beloved father and godfather’. Others will remember him as and integrity. His special skill was in the pursuit of complex legal
sympathetic, compassionate and sharp-witted, and a champion actions in multiple jurisdictions — and leaving no stone unturned
for the cause of justice. May God grant unto him eternal rest. in his search for assets hidden in the world’s financial havens.
In the case of Polly Peck, the conglomerate assembled by the
Anthony Morris Turkish Cypriot entrepreneur Asil Nadir, which collapsed in 1990
Son with debts of £1.3 billion, Morris’s work included collecting cars,
watches and credit cards from a number of ladies kept by Nadir in
PRESS RELEASES flats in Kensington at the shareholders’ expense. Nadir became a
fugitive from British justice, but when he returned to face trial in
Christopher Morris, who has died aged 72, was London’s most 2012, Morris’s extensive testimony was crucial to his conviction
formidable liquidator and receiver of bankrupt businesses. Morris for the theft of some £29 million.
had a hand in many of the most controversial financial cases of
the past half-century. As a young accountant in the late 1960s, Having tried his hand as a sole practitioner after qualifying
he dealt with Dr Emil Savundra’s fraudulent Fire, Auto & Marine in 1967, Morris sought a steadier livelihood in the Insolvency
Insurance and the collapse of John Bloom’s Rolls Razor washing Department of Touche Ross, where he became a Partner in
machine empire; later he was involved in the unwinding of Banco 1972 and rose, after its merger as Deloitte & Touche, to be
Ambrosiano and Bank of Credit & Commerce International. Senior Partner in charge of corporate recovery. Having passed
But perhaps his most celebrated interventions were in the the firm’s mandatory retirement age, in 2004 he found a new
bankruptcies of Laker Airways and Polly Peck. berth with Begbies Traynor. His final case was the liquidation of
Carlyle Capital Corporation, a Guernsey-registered offshoot of
Sir Freddie Laker’s “Skytrain” service started a revolution in low- the powerful US private equity firm Carlyle, in which European
cost transatlantic travel which Sir Richard Branson and others investors lost some $600 million on investments in US
would take forward, but his company was effectively driven mortgage-backed securities after the financial crash. He had
out of business by more established competitors in February secured the right to have the case heard in the Channel Island
1982. As liquidator, Morris’s firm, Touche Ross, was tasked with courts, defeating moves to have it transferred to the US.
recovering as much as possible of the $350 million owed by
Laker to banks and other creditors — and Morris was persuaded A prominent member of the Garrick Club, Morris relished the
that the way to do so was to launch an “anti-trust” suit against pleasures of the table. When another accountant working on the
a list of transatlantic carriers, including British Airways, alleging Nadir case was allegedly mistaken for him in Istanbul and shot
a price-fixing conspiracy. The US authorities then threatened in the leg, Morris recalled: “My immediate reaction [was] let’s go
criminal indictments against BA, whose privatisation could not and have some lunch.” He also loved the Turf, and was attending
proceed until the Laker cases were resolved. This provoked the Cheltenham Festival at the time of his death.

PROFESSOR ROBERT LEAPER
CBE, MA, DR HC

OLD RATCLIFFIAN 1936 - 1940
JUNE 7TH 1921 - DECEMBER 22ND 2014

As a schoolboy, Robert Leaper took the lead role in many Drama productions and was
a very active member of the Literary Society, where, amongst many other qualities, it
seems that he excelled at making speeches.

Upon leaving Ratcliffe as Head Boy in 1940, he received a scholarship to read English
at St John’s College, Cambridge. He left after just one year to become a coal miner in
the pits, from 1942 to 1945, as part of the Bevin Boys scheme; however, he did manage
to complete his degree at Cambridge before becoming a Civil Service Cadet in 1949. He
also completed a Postgraduate Diploma at Oxford in 1960.

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