Inspector Morse - Name and Family

Name and Family

Morse's first name, "Endeavour", was kept a secret until the end of Death is Now My Neighbour (traditionally, Morse claimed that he should be called "Morse", or joked that his first name was "Inspector"). Two thirds the way through the episode he gives the cryptic clue of "My whole lifes effort has revolved around Eve". In the series, it is noted that his reticence about his Christian name led to his being nicknamed "Pagan" while he attended Stamford School; the school is an alma mater of the author of the Morse novels, Colin Dexter, and Dexter's brother. The origin of Morse's first name is the vessel HMS Endeavour, as Morse's mother was a Quaker (Quakers have a tradition of "virtue names"), and his father was a fan of Captain James Cook. Morse's father was, by trade, a taxi driver, and Morse likes to explain the origin of his additional private income by saying that he "used to drive the Aga Khan". Colin Dexter is a fan of cryptic crosswords, and Morse is named after champion setter Jeremy Morse, one of Dexter's arch-rivals as a clue-writer in the crossword world.

Dexter used to walk along the bank of the River Thames at Oxford, opposite the boathouse belonging to 22nd Oxford Sea Scout Group; the building is named "T.S. Endeavour."

During the episode "Cherubim and Seraphim", it is learned that Morse's parents divorced when he was 12. He remained with his mother until her death three years later, when he had to return to his father. He had a dreadful relationship with his stepmother, Gwen, and claimed he only read poetry to annoy her, and that her petty bullying almost drove him to suicide. He has a half-sister, Joyce, with whom he is on better terms, and was devastated when Joyce's daughter, Marilyn, took her own life.