Post-war Life
After the war Morshead returned to civilian life, becoming the Orient Steam Navigation Company's Australian general manager on 31 December 1947. However, he continued to receive additional honours for his military service, including a further Mention in Despatches in 1947 and the American Medal of Freedom with Silver Palm. He was president of the Bank of New South Wales, the chairman of David Jones, and director of a number of companies. From 1950 he headed 'The Association', a secret organization similar to the New Guard movement Morshead had been involved in the mid-1920s, and which was prepared to oppose communist attempts at subversion. It was quietly disbanded in 1952.
In later life, Morshead turned down various offers of military and diplomatic posts, as well as the governorship of Queensland. However, he did serve as president of the Boy Scouts Association of New South Wales and the Big Brother Movement, a British youth emigration support scheme, and was a trustee of the Gowrie scholarship trust fund, which provided assistance to the descendants of Second World War veterans. In 1957 he was appointed chairman of a committee which reviewed the group of departments concerned with defence. The Menzies government accepted the committee's recommendation that Supply and Defence Production be amalgamated, but dropped the key proposal that the Department of Defence absorb the Departments of Army, Navy and Air. This reform was finally carried out by the Whitlam government in 1975.
Morshead died of cancer on 26 September 1959 at St Vincent's Hospital, Sydney. He was given a military funeral at which former soldiers of the 9th Division paid their respects, after which his body was cremated. He was survived by his wife and daughter. Morhead was commemorated in a number of ways. The road Morshead Drive which runs past the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in Canberra is named after him. In the Canberra suburb of Lyneham is the Morshead War Veterans Home, with high-dependency care and associated self-care two-bedroom houses. His portrait by Ivor Hele is held by the Australian War Memorial, as are his wartime papers.
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