Sir Bill Morris Named to British Peerage

Sir Bill Morris, Chancellor of the University of Technology, is now Lord Morris, having been named to the British peerage by Prime Minister, Tony Blair earlier today.
He is among 23 new Life Peers, seven of whom are women, who will serve for life, in the House of Lords.Life Peerages were created in 1958 to facilitate the work of the House of Lords by enlarging the field of recruitment and to secure for it, the services of outstanding men and women, who were not able to accept an hereditary title.
The peers so created, have the rank of baron, and enjoy equal rights and dignities with other peers, except in the passing of the peerage to their offering.
Born in Jamaica, Lord Morris moved to Birmingham in 1954 and worked his way through the ranks of the Transport and General Workers Union to be elected as Britain’s first black general secretary in 1991 and 1995.
He retired from that post in October 2003 but has continued his public role in a variety of ways and during 2005, he chaired the Morris Inquiry into the professional standards of the Metropolitan police.
He is very active in the Jamaican community in the UK and is patron of a number of community organizations including the Jamaica Basic School Foundation and was recently the keynote speaker of the inaugural conference of the Jamaicans in the United Kingdom.
Among his other commitments are non-executive director of the Bank of England; member of the Employment Appeals Tribunal; Chancellor of Staffordshire University, England. He has been appointed to the Cricket Board for England and Wales.
In October 2002 he was awarded the Order of Jamaica for services to international trade unionism and received a knighthood from the Queen in November 2003.