T.L. Morrisey, excerpt from an essay he wrote

 

                From left: Darrell Morrisey; her father T.L Morrisey; her brother Thomas Sydney Morrisey;
                and her mother Clara Morrisey; outside their home "Hazelbrae", at 85 Churchill Avenue,
                                                                            Westmount, Quebec.



Canada's Future, what she offers after the war, a symposium of official opinion (1916) (ed. E.A. Vickers) is an early but important collection of statements, a symposium, on the future of Canada; included among the contributors is the father of Darrell Morrisey (pictured above), Darrell is a forgotten member of Montreal's important Beaver Hall Group of artists.

Here is an excerpt from T.L. Morrisey's contribution to this book. T.L.'s son, Thomas Sydney Morrisey, went on to have a prominent role in business and he  distinguished himself as a war hero in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in Siberia. Darrell Morrisey, in 1916, was only 17 years old and still in school. T.L., himself, was born into a middle class family in Halifax, Nova Scotia; he became very wealthy in the insurance business in Montreal. T.L. died in 1926 not long after his retirement; he and his wife, and Darrell, had recently arrived in the UK planning to spend the winter months in England and France when he died:

In the never-to-be-forgotten April days of the eventful year, 1915, when the torture of suspense spread like a pall over the country to its remotest corner, to be followed by the thrill of pride and exultation, as the story of the glorious deeds of the Canadians at Ypres and St. Julien gradually unfolded, a nation was born! There, upon the classic battle-ground of Europe, that witnessed the military operations of the mighty Caesar and his legions, and, down through the centuries, the struggles of various peoples for mastery! There, against the onslaughts of the greatest military organization the world has ever known, employing methods entirely novel in warfare, and, be it said to the everlasting disgrace of Germany, as despicable as novel, these new-found warriors of the twentieth century held fast, and, in the words of their illustrious commander-in-chief, "saved the situation".

May it not well be asked, where is there another 'eight million people as highly favoured as this eight million, another community possessed of the same per capita wealth, potential as well as in being? Should we not justly be proud of our heritage— our “place in the sun” — and forever be prepared to defend it to our last dollar, and our last man ?

                            

                                                       --T. L. Morrisey