Morrison Hill before it was demolished in the 1920s.

Morrison is the name of a Scottish clan that originated on the Isle of Lewis in the remote Western Isles of Scotland. Its population was, and still is, deeply religious. Nothing operates on Sunday because it is still strictly observed as a holy day.

Robert Morrison was the first Protestant missionary in China. He compiled the first English-Chinese dictionary and was the first person to translate the bible into Chinese. The Manchu emperors discouraged Europeans from learning the language by making it an offence punishable by death. So Morrison founded the Anglo-Chinese College in Malacca, in Malaysia.

His son, John Robert Morrison, studied at the college. Like his father, he was a brilliant Chinese scholar. He joined his father in Canton (modern-day Guangzhou) where he was employed by British merchants as a linguist when he was still a teenager. The United States government sent him as a member of a mission to Cochinchina, before it became a French colony. On his return he published The Chinese Commercial Guide.

He was only 20 when he became Governor Sir Henry Pottinger's Chinese secretary. Later, he was an important member of the government. He died of malaria in Macau at the age of 29. Pottinger called his death "a positive national calamity."

Some romantic historians assume that Morrison Street in Sheung Wan was named after the great evangelist, but it seems that no street was named after him – not even Wan Chai’s Morrison Hill Road or, for that matter, Morrison Hill itself. The hill was originally called Observation Point, because Captain Sir Edward Belcher used it as a "trig point" when he made the first map of the colony. Morrison Hill later became known as "Morrison's Hill" because John Robert Morrison built a house there for the Morrison Education Society, which he had founded. The hill was demolished in the 1920s.

Some eminent modern historians don't believe that Morrison Street was named after either the famous father or son. Their choice is Dr William Morrison, the colonial surgeon who was active when the Bonham Strand wet market area was being developed. The doctor is best known for suggesting that the Peak would be a healthy place to build a sanatorium because it was much cooler and cleaner than the filthy city.

His idea was put on hold until 1862 when a military sanatorium was built on a small plateau just below the Victoria Peak flagstaff. A columnist of the South China Morning Post wrote in the 1920s: "It had unfortunately, a bad reputation from the start – cases were sent unsuited to the occasion; something of an epidemic of diarrhoea had broken out among the troops [probably what we now know as "Hong Kong Dog"] and the sufferers were sent up to the sanatorium, where, probably as an effect of the colder atmosphere, they grew worse instead of improving."

A number of people believed that the Peak was an exceedingly healthy place to live. Among them was a gentleman called Granville Sharp who leased the abandoned sanatorium and managed to persuade several extremely rich people to build a few mansions there. 40 years after Dr William Morrison suggested that the Peak was a healthy place to live, Governor Sir Arthur Kennedy developed the Peak as a residential area.

It is now overbuilt and not quite as pleasant as it was when I lived there in the 1970s. Going to work on the Peak Tram was a delight. There were some beautiful walks with fantastic views – that is, when the whole place was not enveloped in cloud and you couldn't see a thing.