Diplomat Richard Morris found dead after vanishing from Hampshire home took his own life, coroner rules

Richard Morris, a 52-year-old former ambassador to Nepal, worked long hours under high pressure, helping co-ordinate briefings to ministers at a time when the UK was battling the fierce first wave of coronavirus.

The father-of-three was last seen running near his home in Hampshire on May 6, 2020, and his body was found three months later.

Now a coroner has concluded that the long-serving civil servant had taken his own life after suffering work-related stress and worries about his future.

After several years living in Nepal, the couple moved to Hampshire, where Mr Morris worked for the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) in London for several months ahead of their expected posting to Fiji.

Senior coroner Christopher Wilkinson said: ‘Richard Morris took his own life while suffering severe and acute stress.

He added: ‘I recognise the very difficult circumstances in which Richard, the wider taskforce and the FCDO were working in at the time against the backdrop of a very fast-moving pandemic.’

He described the taskforce in the early days of the coronavirus crisis as ‘much like a plane being flown at the same time as building it’.

Mr Wilkinson mentioned the diplomat’s history of stress and worries about performing to the best of his ability.

Previously at the inquest, his widow Alison Morris said her husband feared there was not enough time to process information in the fast-moving period and if any information error got past him the government ‘would be torn apart in the press’.

As a result he was ‘desperate’ to keep on top of what was going on, working every day with ‘no real time off’, she said.

She said her husband was a ‘quiet extrovert” who ‘thrived on interactions with others’.

She said: ‘He was genuinely interested in people.

‘His kindness and compassion shone through even when there was a language barrier.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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