Moir Morrison

Born on April 28, 1920, Moir Morrison was one of four children. They lived on a farm near Cairnie, north of Aberdeen, Scotland. At 19, he joined the Gordon Highlanders, rising to the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. With the outbreak of WW2, Morrison’s unit was mobilized and landed at Le Havre in January 1940 as part of the British Expeditionary Forces. They saw action in Lille, then Belgium, but had to be evacuated at Dunkirk. At this time, Morrison was mistakenly reported as being killed in action. This error wasn’t discovered until he returned home on leave, much to the shock and delight of his family! 

He was good with machinery, and was assigned to maintain bren gun carriers in Sicily in 1942, where he was promoted to Lieutenant. In 1944 he returned to train in England, in preparation, as it turned out, for the D-Day invasion. Lt. Morrison was a craft commander for the invasion, and landed on Sword Beach with the 1st Battalion Gordon Highlanders with the bren gun carriers. They moved inland through Caen, the Falaise Gap and on to LeHavre. Now a Captain, he continued with the1st Battalion across the Rhine River into Germany. Once Berlin fell and Germany capitulated, Capt. Morrison volunteered for service in Burma, where he remained until after Japan surrendered. 

After the war he joined the Anglo-Iranian Oil company, where he met his future wife, Kathleen, a former British army nurse. They married and lived in Iran for 3 1/2 years. Once back in Scotland they decided to move to Canada. Morrison’s aptitude with machinery saw him work briefly on St. John’s Farm then General Motors, before he bought his own truck, and started his own life-long business. He and his wife had four children, and grew to be respected figures in the Uxbridge community, with Morrison an active member of the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 170.