William Sinclair Marris

Sir William Sinclair Marris, (9 October 1873 – 12 December 1945 ) was a British civil servant, colonial administrator, and classical scholar. He was a member of the Indian Civil Service during the British Raj, and later became Vice-Chancellor of the University of Durham.

Education and life Born on 9 October 1873, Marris was educated at Wanganui Collegiate School and Canterbury College in New Zealand, and later studied at Christ Church, Oxford. He passed first in the Indian Civil Service (open) examination in 1895.

He married Eleanor Mary Fergusson, in 1905, who died a year later in 1906. After retirement from the Indian Civil Service, Marris returned to Northern England and remarried to Elizabeth Wilford in 1934, whom he had known from his childhood in New Zealand.

In 1921, he laid Murari Chand College's foundation stone in Thackeray Hills, Sylhet alongside Syed Abdul Majid.

Following his return from India he resigned as a member of the Council of the Secretary of India to take a principalship at Armstrong College in Newcastle upon Tyne, and he was Vice-Chancellor of Durham University from 1932 to 1934.

Assistant Magistrate, U.P. 1896 Under Secretary to Government, U.P. 1899 Under Secretary to Government of India. 1901 Deputy Secretary to Government of India, 1904 Magistrate and Collector; Aligarh, 1910 Member Executive Committee Coronation Durbar, 1912 Acting Secretary to Government of India, Home Department, 1913 Inspector-General of Police, U.P. 1916 Joint Secretary to Government of India 1919–21 Reforms Commissioner, 1919–20 Governor of Assam, 1921–22 Governor of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, 1922–28 Member of Council of India, 1928–29

Publications

Sir William Marris authored and translated several publications including The Odes of Horace. By Horace, (translated Sir William Marris). Published London, New York [etc.]: H.Frowde, 1912 (books I-IV and the Saecular hymn translated into English verse) The Iliad of Homer. By Homer, (translated Sir William Marris). Published London, New York [etc.]: Oxford University Press, 1934 The Odyssey of Homer. By Homer, (translated Sir William Marris). Published London, New York [etc.]: Oxford University Press, 1925

Catullus. By Catallus, (translated Sir William Marris). Published Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1924 India: the political problem By Sir William Marris. Published Nottingham, 1930?

Vice-Chancellor of the University of Durham From 1929 to 1937, Marris was Principal of Armstrong College in the Newcastle division of the University of Durham (now Newcastle University), in which role he held the position of Vice-Chancellor of the University of Durham from 1932 to 1934.