While Frank McCourt may have become a best-selling author for Angela's Ashes, a local resident also has quite the story
to tell.
Sen Morrison, 77, grew up in the same industrial school as the famed Irish author in the county of Limerick, Ireland,
before being plucked from the country and dropped in England to train as an
apprentice at the age of 16.
As the country stops to remember those who have served in the military on
Remembrance Day, Morrison and his family are also reflecting on his years of service as a British solider and his recent recognition for his actions in the 1950s.
Last fall, Morrison travelled to Vancouver to receive the Pingat Jasa medal for his service with the Special Air Service (SAS) during the Malayan Emergency of 1948 to 1960. The former plumber and pipe-fitter spent two years in Malaysian jungles working to flush out the guerilla members of the Malayan Communist Party.
The Malaysian government received approval from the British government in 2005 to award British veterans and others who served in Malaysian operations between August 1957 and August 1966.
Morrison received his medal from Malaysian Consul General Mohd Hassan Bal, 52 years after his tour of duty. Morrison is currently writing a memoir for his family to recount his life story, and shared some of his memories with The Citizen.
"At the age of 16 and three months, I was dropped off in England by a man I called Sir - my father - who I didn't know too well," Morrison said.
He began his apprenticeship training and met and married his wife Peggy at the age of 17.
Three months later, in 1957, Morrison joined army, despite his Irish citizenship, which exempted him from conscription.
"I said, 'If I'm good enough to live in your bloody country, I'm good enough to fight for it.'"
The teenager was advised to apply for a spot in the SAS, and made it through the grueling training process.
"There were 21 of us, but only seven of us got through," he said.
Morrison was eventually sent to Malaysia in 1958, where he and his comrades would parachute into the jungle with their eight-man unit for months at a time, often lowering themselves from 100-foot trees to hunt terrorists.
"Our job was to flush them out," he said.
"They gave us a month's rest, but I went down to 90 lbs in the jungle," Morrison said.
They had two weeks of rations, he said, and carried equipment weighing 110 pounds.
When Morrison returned home from service, there was a substantial adjustment period. When he joined the army, he didn't know his wife was pregnant and his son Michael was nearly two by the time he returned to England.
"My kid climbed on top of me when I was asleep. I nearly killed him," Morrison said of the post-traumatic stress disorder he had to manage.
A posting with Algoma Steel sent the Morrison family to Sault St. Marie, Ont., in 1969 and further work carried the veteran and his family west, before they eventually ended up in Prince George in 1981.
Despite a few years on Vancouver Island, Morrison said the urge to return to the north was too strong, and he and his wife came back to Prince George by the late '80s, joining their daughters Karen and Valerie.
Karen Bobbie said her father is a modest man, who didn't even tell the family when he went to receive his medal with the only other surviving member of his unit.
"It's not something I want to brag about," Morrison explained.
