Arthur Robert Morris MBE was an Australian cricketer who played 46 Test matches between 1946 and 1955. An opener, Morris is regarded as one of Australia's greatest left-handed batsmen. He is best known for his key role in Don Bradman's Invincibles side, which made an undefeated tour of England in 1948. He was the leading scorer in the Tests on the tour, with three centuries. His efforts in the Fourth Test at Headingley helped Australia to reach a world record victory target of 404 on the final day.

The son of a schoolteacher who played for Waverley Cricket Club in Sydney as a fast bowler, Morris was born on 19 January 1922 in the Sydney seaside suburb of Bondi and spent his early years in the city. His family moved when he was five to Dungog, then to Newcastle before returning to Sydney in the suburb of Beverly Hills. His father encouraged him to play sports and he showed promise in a variety of ball sports, particularly cricket and rugby. Aged 12, he gained a place as a slow bowler for Newcastle Boys' High School's cricket team. On Saturday afternoons he played for Blackwall. Morris attended Canterbury Boys' High School from 1936 to 1939 where he represented the school at cricket and rugby union.

In his last two years of high school, he was selected for Combined High Schools teams in both cricket as captain in and rugby. At the age of 14, he made his debut for St George, and in 1937/38 he was elevated to the second XI. The following year he was selected for the team as a batsman after captain Bill O'Reilly decided that his left-arm unorthodox spin had less potential. O'Reilly quickly moved Morris up to the No. 6 position in the batting order. After scoring a century against Sydney University, O'Reilly moved him into the opening position without prior notice, where he remained.

While still at high school, Morris was selected to play for the New South Wales Second XI against Victoria in January 1939, his first taste of representative cricket. After finishing his secondary education at the end of 1939, Morris became a clerk in the Prosecutions Branch at Sydney Town Hall. He was chosen to make his debut, aged 18, for New South Wales against Queensland at the Sydney Cricket Ground in the 1940/41 season, a season in which there was no Sheffield Shield cricket due to the Second World War. He scored centuries in both innings, becoming the first player in the world to achieve the feat on debut.

Morris' first-class cricket career was interrupted by the Second World War when domestic matches were cancelled at the end of the season. In January 1943, he enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, and served in the South West Pacific, mostly in New Guinea with the 8th Movement Control Group, part of the Royal Australian Corps of Transport. During his time in the army, Morris spent more time playing rugby union than cricket. The coach of the Army and Combined Services rugby team, Johnny Wallace, regarded him as the "best five eighth in Australia". He remained a Private throughout his military service and was demobbed on 18 June 1946. Despite his eligibility, Morris was not selected for the Australian Services XI in 1945, something that baffled many.

Morris was automatically restored to the Sheffield Shield team in 1946/47 upon the resumption of competition. He made 27 and 98 in his first match against Queensland, and was selected for an Australian XI match against Wally Hammond's touring MCC team when first-choice opener Bill Brown was injured. In what was effectively a trial for the Test team, Morris scored 115 and featured in a 196-run partnership with Test captain Don Bradman, who scored 106. After scoring 81 for New South Wales in his next match, against the MCC, Morris was selected to make his Test debut in the First Test against England in Brisbane.

He failed in his first two Tests, managing just two and five, although Australia won both matches by an innings. Despite being criticised for having a "loose technique,” Bradman advised Morris to stick to his approach. Morris responded by scoring 83 and 110 in the traditional pre-Christmas match between New South Wales and Victoria at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the top score in both innings. He was retained for the Third Test in Melbourne, but made only 21 in the first innings. If he had failed a fourth time, it could have allowed another player to claim his position, but Morris secured his place with his maiden Test century, scoring 155 in the second innings.

Morris managed a century in each innings of the Fourth Test at Adelaide, making 122 and 124 not out in extremely hot weather. This made him the second Australian after Warren Bardsley to score two centuries in one Ashes Test. Morris put in another determined effort to ensure a draw. With the match secure, Morris played more aggressively towards the end in an unbeaten 99-run partnership with Bradman. He made 57 in the Fifth Test in Sydney to end the series with an aggregate of 503 runs, at an average of 71.85, second only to Bradman. Morris ended his first full first-class season with 1234 runs at 68.55, partnering Sid Barnes at the top of the order at both state and international level.

Morris started the 1947–48 Australian season strongly, scoring 162 in his second match as New South Wales crushed the touring Indians by an innings ahead of the Tests. He played in the first four Tests, scoring 45 and an unbeaten 100 in the Third Test victory in Melbourne. In that match, he dropped down the order as Bradman used the tail-enders to protect the batsmen from a sticky wicket. Morris then came in and combined with Bradman in a double century stand.

The selectors wished to trial other possible choices for the 1948 tour of England, including Bill Brown in the opening position, so either Barnes or Morris had to sit out. This was decided by a coin toss. Morris lost and did not play; he was given 10 pounds as compensation. Morris thus ended the series with 209 runs at an average of 52.25. Australia won the final Indian Test to seal the series 4–0. Morris, the recently appointed co-captain of New South Wales, had greatly impressed Australia captain Don Bradman, to the extent that Bradman made Morris one of the three selectors for the 1948 tour of England. Morris was a key part of Bradman's inner circle in planning for the tour. Bradman had long harboured the ambition of touring England without losing a match.

Arthur marked his first-class debut on English soil with a fluent 138 against Worcestershire, which was scored in only four hours and made him the first Australian centurion on tour. Morris found batting difficult for the first few weeks as he adapted to the alien batting conditions, reaching 50 only twice in his next nine innings. Morris was worried about edging the ball to the slips cordon and had become fidgety and shuffled across the crease. He rectified this, and success followed with 184 against Sussex in the final match before the First Test.

Morris' Test form peaked in the series, heading the Test averages with 696 runs at 87.00, and he was the only player to compile three Test centuries. After scoring 31 and 9 in the First Test victory at Trent Bridge,he was criticised by former Australian Test opener Jack Fingleton, who believed Morris was shuffling across the crease too much instead of playing from the back foot. Morris scored 105 and 62 in the Second Test at Lord's to help Australia take a 2–0 series lead. After being rested against Surrey, the following match was against Gloucestershire at Bristol, where in only five hours, Morris scored his career best of 290. Morris reached his century by lunch and was 231 by the tea interval. By the time he was dismissed, he had struck 40 fours and a six.

Morris followed his effort in Bristol with two half centuries, 51 and 54 not out in the drawn Third Test. He then struck 108 against Middlesex in a tour match. Morris' century meant that he had amassed 504 runs in just over a week of cricket. The Fourth Test at Headingley in Leeds saw Morris at his finest; England started well with 496 in the first innings and took a 38-run lead as Australia replied with 458, Morris contributing only six. England declared at 8/365, leaving Australia to chase 404 runs for victory. Australia had only 345 minutes to reach the target, and the local press wrote them off, predicting that they would be dismissed by lunchtime on a deteriorating wicket expected to favour the spin bowlers.

Morris and Hassett started slowly, with only six runs in the first six overs. When Laker was introduced to exploit the spin, 13 runs were taken from his first over. Bradman joined Morris with 347 runs needed in 257 minutes. Bradman signalled his intentions on his first ball by driving Laker against the spin for a boundary. Morris promptly joined Bradman in the counter-attack, hitting three consecutive fours off Len Hutton's bowling as Australia reached lunch at 1/121. Upon resumption, Morris severely attacked Denis Compton's bowling. Morris struck seven fours in two overs.

Morris had added 37 runs in the 15 minutes since lunch. He had become the first Australian to hit 20 boundaries in his reaching his century in a Test in England. This forced English captain Norman Yardley to replace Compton, and Australia reached 202 (halfway to the required total) with 165 minutes left. When Bradman suffered a fibrositis attack, Morris had to shield him from the strike until it subsided. Morris passed his century and Australia reached tea at 1/288 with Morris on 150. The pair had added 167 during the session. Morris was eventually dismissed for 182, having survived multiple chances and partnered Bradman in a partnership of 301 in 217 minutes. He struck 33 fours in 290 minutes of batting. Australia proceeded to accumulate the remaining 46 runs to secure the victory by seven wickets.

ARTHUR Morris was the batsman at the other end of the pitch in the Fifth Test at The Oval when Don Bradman was famously bowled by Eric Hollies for a duck in his final Test innings. Morris went on to score 196 in an innings noted for his hooking and off-driving before finally being removed by a run out as Australia reached 389. He scored more than half the runs as the rest of the team struggled against the leg spin of Hollies, who took five wickets. With England having been bowled out for 52 in their first innings, Australia sealed the series 4–0 with an innings victory. Morris took four catches, including a famous dismissal of Compton, who hooked the ball. Morris ran from his position at short square leg to take a difficult catch, described as "one of the catches of the season".

Morris ended the first-class tour with 1,922 runs at 71.18, despite being troubled by a split between the first and second fingers of his left hand caused by constant jarring from the bat as he played the ball. The wound often opened while he was batting, forcing him to undergo a minor operation, which sidelined him from some matches in the latter part of the tour. With the retirement of Bradman following the 1948 tour, Morris was regarded by commentators as Australia's leading batsman. In the 1948/49 season, he scored 1,049 runs at 66.81 in nine matches with six centuries and two fifties, taking his tally for the previous twelve months to 2,991 runs at 69.56, with 13 centuries. He scored a century in each of his first three matches for the season, making 120 against Queensland, 108 in Bradman's Testimonial and 163 against Western Australia. After a match without triple figures, he added 177 against Victoria.

Morris was appointed Australian vice-captain under Lindsay Hassett for a five-Test tour of the Union of South Africa in 1949/50. Morris was out for a duck in Australia's only innings as the team won by an innings. He made starts in the next two Tests, passing twenty but failing to reach a half-century on all four occasions. He returned to form by making 111 and 19 in the drawn Fourth Test in Johannesburg. In between, Morris struck two further centuries in the tour matches, against Border and Transvaal. He finished with a score of 157 in the Fifth Test in Port Elizabeth, laying the foundation for an innings victory and a 4–0 series result.

England toured Australia for the 1950/51 Ashes series and Morris started the season strongly. He scored 74, 101 and 78 not out as NSW won consecutive matches against Queensland. Morris then warmed up the Tests by amassing 168 for New South Wales against England. However, he made a poor start to the Test series by aggregating only 45 runs in the first three Tests, which included two ducks. Four of his five dismissals came at the hands of Alec Bedser.

Facing omission from the side, Morris recovered in the Fourth Test at the Adelaide Oval, where Hassett shielded him from Bedser. This helped Morris to settle in before batting for a day and a half to score 206, his highest Test score and only double century at the highest level. It constituted the majority of Australia's total, which set up 274-run victory and a 4–0 series lead. Morris ended the series with a half-century in Melbourne in Australia's only loss, the first Test loss he had played in after 24 matches for Australia. Morris was in strong form during the first-class season; he scored three centuries against England in the tour matches and compiled six in all to finish with 1,221 runs at 58.14.

The 1951/52 season saw the second tour to Australia by the West Indies. Morris experimented with his stance during the winter in response to criticism about his footwork when facing Bedser. Morris felt that his problems had arisen because he attempted to play excessively on the leg side. He opened his season by punishing the Queenslanders with a score of 253 in a Shield match and then scored 210 against Victoria. His Test form was unimpressive though; he started steadily, with 122 runs in the first two Tests, which were won by Australia. After scores of 6 and 12 in the Fourth Test, he missed the final Test due to injury, ending an unproductive Test summer in which he managed only 186 runs. The series was noted for Morris' difficulties against the spin duo of Alf Valentine and Sonny Ramadhin, who bowled left-arm orthodox and leg spin respectively.

The 1952/53 season started poorly for Morris. He was replaced by Keith Miller as state captain, despite having scored almost 700 runs at a fast rate in the previous Shield season at an average above 50, and leading his state to another title. It was speculated among the media that his penchant for wearing brightly coloured rubber-soled shoes could have upset the conservative administrators, and that Morris was too genial to be Australian captain. The media made Morris a scapegoat for dwindling public attendances following the retirement of Bradman and lobbied for Keith Miller, who they deemed to be more appealing to the public.

He ended the South African series with 370 runs at 41.11 and took his maiden Test wicket in Adelaide, that of John Watkins. The series ended 2–2, the first Test series in Morris' career that Australia had not won. In 1953, Morris returned to England, the setting for his three Test centuries five years earlier, for another Ashes series. His performances in the first two drawn Tests, in which he struck three half-centuries, indicated that might be returning to his earlier high class form. The teams were locked at 0–0 heading into the Fifth Test, and Hassett and Morris thought that the pitch at The Oval would favour fast bowling. However, they were mistaken, and Morris could manage only 16 and 26 as the hosts' spinners cut down the tourists, while their Australian counterparts watched from the stands. This meant that the hosts regained the Ashes for the first time in two decades with a 1–0 triumph, and Morris thus tasted a series defeat for the first time in his career.

Speculation linked his difficulties on the field to his personal relationships: during the tour Morris had fallen in love with English showgirl Valerie Hudson; he spotted her when she was performing in the Crazy Gang vaudeville show at London's Victoria Palace. The team was also hindered by tension brought on by a generational divide. The senior players, Morris among them, were retired servicemen who were drinkers, while the younger players tended to abstain from alcohol. The seniors frequently stopped the team bus to drink at pubs, leaving their younger colleagues disgruntled at the fact that the squad travelled at around 10 miles per hour.

At the start of the next season, Morris was not made Australian captain despite being the incumbent vice-captain. Instead, he remained as deputy as Victoria's Ian Johnson was recalled to the team and assumed the captaincy. There was speculation that the two Queensland board members voted for Morris, the three New South Wales delegates voted for Miller, while the remainder voted Johnson. When England returned to Australia in 1954/55, Morris made his first Test century in almost four years during the opening Test at Brisbane. Morris made 153 to lay the foundation for a score of 8/601 declared and an innings victory.

Although Australia took a first innings lead in the 2nd Test in Sydney, they lost the low-scoring match by 38 runs after a batting collapse in the face of a Tyson pace barrage on the final day. Aided by a powerful tailwind, Tyson bowled at extreme pace and the slips cordon stood 45m away from the wicket. Morris was covered in bruises; he deliberately used his body to fend off short-pitched balls rather than risk a catch. He failed to pass 25 in either of the following Tests as Australia fell 3–1 behind with a hat-trick of losses and he was dropped for the Fifth Test. Aside from the First Test century, Morris struggled throughout the entire season, passing fifty on only one other occasion and managing only 382 runs at 31.83.

Morris' international farewell was the 1954/55 tour of the West Indies. Prior to the tour, Miller replaced him as Australian vice-captain. He struck 157 against Jamaica in his first tour match, earning a recall to the Test team. He made 65 in the First Test victory in Kingston, Jamaica, before making his final Test century (111) in the drawn Second Test in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He made 44 and 38 in the Third Test win and then missed the Fourth Test due to illness. He scored seven in his final Test innings in the Fifth Test, which Australia won by an innings to seal the series 3–0. Morris ended the Test series with 266 runs at 44.33. In his final tour in Australian colours, Morris totalled 577 runs at 57.45 in seven first-class matches.

Returning to Sydney after the West Indian tour, Morris learned that his new wife Valerie had been diagnosed with breast cancer in his absence. She had concealed her illness until his return, fearing that it would distract him from his cricket. With his wife's condition deteriorating he realised that her condition was terminal. With his wife's death imminent, Morris organised the couple's return to Britain with financial help from Hassett. He worked as a cricket reporter for London's Daily Express during the 1956 Ashes tour while his wife was reunited with her family for the last time. She died soon after they returned to Australia at the end of the tour, aged just 33. They had been married only 18 months.

In the wake of his personal loss, Morris, known for his sincerity and high personal values, received many offers of work and financial assistance. He then moved back to Sydney to take up a public relations job with security group Wormald International where he worked until his retirement in the late 1980s. He was appointed to the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust in 1965 and served there for 22 years, eight of them as deputy chairman. During this time, the ground was modernised and the Bradman Stand erected. In 1968, Morris met and married his second wife.

He was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1992. In 2001, he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame alongside Bill Woodfull, the fourteenth and fifteenth players to be inducted. In 2000, he was named in the Australian Cricket Board's Team of the Century. Morris was named as an opening batsman in Bradman's selection of his greatest team in Test history. Morris died on 22 August 2015 at the age of 93. His former Australian teammate Neil Harvey, the last surviving Australian member of the "Invincibles" tour, paid tribute to him as "one of the best players this country has produced" and said that "you wouldn't find a nicer bloke in the world".