Morris Lorimer was a highly regarded member of the licensed trade, working in the sector for nearly 50 years. He passed away in April 2025, shortly after his 75th birthday.
Morris was born in the Gorbals area of Glasgow in 1950. He and his family were relocated to East Kilbride in 1958. Morris would recall: “We were excited to be moving to the country!”
His career began as a chef in hotel kitchens. In 1965, at 15 years old, he became a trainee chef at Glasgow’s Central Hotel, moving on to the Bellahouston Hotel in 1970 to broaden his experience.
A few years later, in 1974, he was appointed the head chef at the Eglinton Arms, Eaglesham. He was very proud to work at such a renowned establishment and would tell his son and grandchildren that his time there was ‘real cheffing!’. “If two of you can make 75 meals in an hour twice over and ensure all 150 people enjoyed their dinner then that’s real chef work!”.
In 1978, Morris had the opportunity to move out of the kitchen and use his experience to help other chefs. He joined Scottish and Newcastle (S&N), in Edinburgh at head office, as a catering adviser. He loved his new role there and described wearing a suit, shirt and tie every day and having a company car as a ‘great way to live!’.
In 1982, Morris, being a ‘people person’, naturally moved from his catering advisor role into the training team at S&N and he never looked back.
His training career took him all over the UK, including spending much of his time in Newcastle at the National Training Centre and later managing NVQ training in Northampton. Morris went on to become the training manager where he delivered a range of courses including ‘Training New Managers’ as part of the Core Skills Programme run by S&N.
In 2005 he took redundancy and after a brief stint where he enjoyed playing golf full-time, he joined the training team at Belhaven in Stirling. Again, Morris was in his element developing the Belhaven training team and coaching new trainers.
In 2008 Morris was presented with the ‘Professional Trainer of the year’ award. This BIIAB award was the pinnacle of his long and distinguished career.
In 2012, Morris retired to spend time with family, his three grandsons and to go on many cruises with his beloved wife, Elizabeth.
Sadly we lost Morris in April due to ill health. His memory, enthusiasm and many life lessons live on through all who met him.
