Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Morland, Henry (1837-1891)
MORLAND, Sir HENRY (1837–1891), Indian official, born on 9 April 1837, was third son of John Morland, esq., barrister-at-law, descendant of the Morlands of Capplethwaite and Killington Halls, Westmoreland, by Elizabeth, daughter of James Thompson, esq. , of Grayrigg Hall in the same county. He was educated at Heversham and Bromsgrove schools, and also privately by Dr. Webster, mathematical master at Christ's Hospital. He entered the Indian navy in 1852, being appointed to the Akbar on 5 June. In September of the same year he joined the steamer Queen as midshipman. Between 1853 and 1856 he served on the north-east coast of Africa. He was present at the engagement with the Arabs at Shugra in 1853, and was in charge of the barque Norma, by which an Arab bugla which broke the Berbera blockade was captured in 1855. He next served on the Arabian coast, commanding a schooner at the reoccupation of Perim on 12 Jan. 1857, and a division of boats at the bombardment of Jeddah in July 1858. On 21 Nov. 1857 he became mate of the Dalhousie, and in the same month of the next year was fourth lieutenant on the Assaye. In October 1859, as the first lieutenant of the Clive, he took part in the naval operations on the coast of Kathiawar, Bombay Presidency, by which the Wagbeer rising was put down. His last active service was with the Semiramis, January 1863, in the expedition by which the murderers of the officers of H.M.S. Penguin were punished. On 30 April 1863, when the order abolishing the Indian navy came into operation, he was placed on the retired list, with the rank of honorary lieutenant, and received a pension of 160. He was now attached to the Indian marine, and in the spring of 1864 commanded the Dalhousie when engaged in laying down the marine cable of the Indo-European telegraph. Later in the same year he accompanied the convoy of the mission to Abyssinia, and was detained for some months at Massowah. In 1865 he became transport officer at Bombay, as well as dockmaster and signal officer; and in the following year superintendent of floating batteries. In 1866 he was in command of the party which rescued the Dalhousie when stranded on the Malabar coast on the sunken wreck of the Di Vernon.
He superintended the equipment and despatch of the fleet of transports of the Abyssinian expedition in 1867, when, besides twenty-seven thousand men and two thousand horses, forty-five elephants, six thousand bullocks, and three thousand mules and ponies were shipped. Morland was transport officer at Bombay till 1879, and in 1873 became conservator of the port, president of the board of marine examiners, and registrar of shipping. From April 1875 he also acted for a few months as secretary to the Bombay port trust.
In 1872 he went to Madras as a member of the commission to inquire into the recent wrecks, and he organised the commissariat and transport of the Afghan war. Meanwhile he also began to take an active part in municipal affairs at Bombay. In 1868 he was appointed J.P., and became a member of the corporation. In 1877 he was appointed a member of the town council. On 23 June 1886 he was elected chairman of the corporation, and was re-elected on 5 April 1887. He was chairman of the committee which drew up the Bombay jubilee address, which he took to England and presented to the queen at Windsor on 30 June, when he was knighted. He died at his residence in Rampart Row, Bombay, on 28 July 1891. He was buried with military honours.
Morland married in 1870 Alice Mary, second daughter of A. W. Critchley, esq., of Manchester, who died in 1871, leaving a daughter; and in 1875, Fanny Helen Hannah, second daughter of Jeronimo Carandini, twelfth marquis de Sarzano, by whom he had five children, of whom two died before him.
He was highly esteemed by Anglo-Indians and natives, and was a most efficient administrator. He was an enthusiastic freemason. In 1870, after having served in several minor offices, he was appointed by the grand lodge of Scotland to be provincial grandmaster for western India, including Ceylon, and in 1874 grandmaster of all Scottish freemasonry in India, including Aden. The foundation of the Mahometan lodge, 'Islam,' was almost entirely due to his influence. He was for some years secretary of the Bombay Geographical Society, to which in 1875 he read a paper on Abyssinia, and was also a fellow of Bombay University and of the Astronomical Society, and an associate of the Indian College of Engineers.
[Debrett's Peerage, &c., 1891; Bombay Gazette (weekly), 5 July 1887, 31 July, and 7 Aug. 1891; 'Overland Times of India (weekly), 31 July and 7 Aug. 1891; Times, 4 Aug. 1891, which gives age wrongly; Low's Hist. of Indian Navy, ii. 411,421, 422 (note), 551 (note), 572, Appendix A.]