Marcus Morris

John Marcus Harston Morris (25 April 1915 – 16 March 1989) was an English Anglican priest who founded the Eagle weekly comic in 1950, launched the British edition of Cosmopolitan in 1972, and was deputy chairman of the National Magazine Company.

Early life Born in Preston, Lancashire, the son of a clergyman, Morris grew up in Southport. He attended Dean Close School in Cheltenham, before reading Classics at Brasenose College, Oxford on an ecclesiastical scholarship, then theology at Wycliffe Hall, Oxford.

Career Morris was ordained deacon of the Church of England in Liverpool in 1939, and priest in 1940.

In 1948 Morris and Chad Varah were part of a group of diocesan editors who formed the Society of Christian Publicity, which took over publishing The Anvil. At its inaugural meeting Morris spoke about the kinds of periodical the Church should be publishing, including a "strip-cartoon magazine for children". joining the National Magazine Company, a subsidiary of the Hearst Corporation, as editorial director. and "The Road of Courage", a retelling of the life of Christ illustrated by Hampson and Joan Porter.

He became managing director and editor-in-chief of the National Magazine Company in 1964. He was responsible for launching the British edition of Cosmopolitan, created the distributor Comag in association with Condé Nast, and increased the circulation of his magazines at a time when the market was declining. He became deputy chairman in 1979, received the OBE in the 1983 New Year Honours, and retired in 1984.

Personal life Having been briefly engaged to model Rita Foyle, he married actress Jessica Dunning in 1941, and they had four children.

Later years and death In his later years he lived in Midford, Somerset, and died on 16 March 1989, aged 73, at the King Edward VII Hospital for Officers, London. A memorial service was held at St Bride's Church, Fleet Street, where he had been honorary chaplain from 1952 to 1983.