So where was the painted white cross in Ardrishaig, marking the 1908 Morrison murder?

There are two mysteries we’d like help in resolving – and there may be folk around Ardrishaig and Lochgilphead who have some light to shed on them.

On 11th Jun 1908 a doctor who was a native of Ardrishaig and had practised for a while in Edinburgh before coming back to the Loch Fyneside village, was killed in an assault on a path between Ardrishaig and Lochgilphead.

Two passing cyclists discovered one of the two men involved in the assault, standing in the middle of the road as they were cycling home to Lochgilphead late that night.

Lying at the side of the road was a man who, when the cyclists got off their bikes to go and help him, saw being subjected to a kicking by the man they’d just passed.

The two challenged the assailant, who denied kicking the man on the ground.

The cyclists were a lawyer’s clerk, Archibald Carswell and Alexander Crawford.

Carswell checked out the man lying at the roadside, thought he was ‘done for’, saw a small head movement, heard a groan and witnessed the body still.

A man of the law who knew his way around such things, Carswell then simply told the attacker that he’d better come with him which, in those more innocent days, the man did, complaining as they went that he had not been kicking the other man.

As the three men neared Ardrishaig, they found a second man lying up against a boundary wall near the access to the shore. The knowing Carswell quickly established that this man had been present at the scene of the attack, although he said he had left earlier.

As the four men went into the village there was a scuffle of some sort and the two men ran off. Cool Carswell and Crawford just carried on to the local policemen’s house – Constable McRae, filled him in on what had happened and the three of them set off to find the two men who had scarpered. In a small village, they would, of course, have been known by name and they would not have been hard to find.

As indeed it proved. The shouting and singing the men were doing would have been a pretty good direction finder. Drink had obviously been taken – although Carswell said later that the man he and Crawford had passed standing in the road at the scene, seemed to be sober and steady on his feet.

Constable McRae took the two men in charge and led them back to the scene of the attack – where the man concerned appeared still to be alive.

Carswell went off at once for a doctor who got there 20 minutes later – by which time the man had died.

He was 44 year-old Dr Duncan Shaw Morrison and known to be what we would now describe as an alcoholic. He had three convictions for being drunk and disorderly.

The two men involved were William MacGregor, the man Carswell and Crawford had passed on their bikes, when he was standing in the middle of the road beside the dying man; and Thomas Fox, the one found lying drukenly against the boundary wall.

Dr Morrison was buried in the graveyard at Kilmartin Church. MacGregor, who had no previous history of assault, was charged with his murder but pled Not Guilty. Thomas Fox became a witness for the prosecution.

At trial in the Courthouse at Inveraray Jail,the Keeper of the Courthouse, or Governor, David Stewart, submitted photographic material which was accepted as evidence. This is one of the first recorded occasion in Scottish law where such evidence was entertained.

The original photograph submitted  – reproduced above – is in the possession of Inveraray Jail and shows, not the body of Dr Morrison, but a recreation of the scene found by Carswell, Crawford and Constable McRae.

Interestingly, David Stewart was the grandfather of Robert Stewart, Pipe Major to today’s Inveraray and District Novice Pipe Band and who, with his son, runs a long established painting and decorating business in the area.

During the trial, as a succession of witnesses, including Fox, contradicted his statements, MacGregor accepted his Counsel’s advice and changed his plea to Guilty of the lesser crime of culpable homicide. The Jury then found him guilty of this crime by his own confession and Lord Johnston sentenced him to 7 years had labour – which he served at Peterhead Prison.

Missing and incomplete Information

The basic information we have comes from Inveraray Jail, now one of Scotland’s top visitor attractions, in whose Courthouse MacGregor was tried.

We have also found some information on the incident on the Internet, some of which is clearly inaccurate but whether fully or partially so we cannot know.

One refers to an incident in the correct location where it says that a doctor was stabbed by a mentally disturbed man – and puts the date wrongly at 1926.

A genealogical site yielded the information that Dr Morrison’s birth certificate – with his parents named as Duncan Morrison (Innkeeper) and Mary Shaw (hence his middle name) – was issued on 28th September 1864; and his death certificate on 3rd June 1908.

We have also found a contributor to a different genealogical website who says that he/she has a contemporary newspaper cutting on the murder. We have registered on the website and posted a request for information on the contents of the cutting – but have no idea whether the contributor will return to the site to find our request and respond to it.

Missing links in the story are:

• What were the injuries to the dead man?
• Was MacGregor mentally ill?
• What defence did he offer?
• What evidence was offered by the witnesses for the prosecution?
• What did the photographic evidence demonstrate to the court?
• Who recreated the position of Dr Morrison – and at whose request?
• Who took the photograph?

The mysteries

As well as the missing links above, there are two folk mysteries at the end of this tale.

As one of the early wayside shrines to which we are accustomed today, a white cross was painted on a garden wall at the spot where Dr Morrison was killed.

This paint on this cross was kept touched up for many years by an unknown person.

• Where was / is this cross?
• Who kept the cross freshly painted?

This incident is a part of local history not far beyond living memory and certainly within the memories of those who will have known of it by direct transmission from people around at the time.

It would be good to know more, to know where and to know who maintained the cross.