A Tribute to Tanya

The courage that my mother had, went with her and is with her still

Rock from New England quarried, now granite on a granite hill.

The golden brooch my mother wore she left behind for me to wear.

There is no thing I treasure more, yet it is something I could spare.

O if instead she'd left to me that thing she took into the grave,

That courage, like a rock, which she has no more need of, and I have. 

                                              

                                                                     Edna St. Vincent Millay

This poem is in memory of my beloved daughter, Tanya Bocking who died 11 years ago on December 10th.

It was written to a mother, but it could easily be to a daughter. Tanya had great courage . It defined

 her life, and was at the core of her being. Courage, love for her friends and family, and a deep sense

 of. justice. The world cannot easily spare such people.

That day, 11 years ago, was the nadir of my life  Having known her and loved her, we had to get used

 to life without her. She was  a great teacher, and a huge influence. I was privileged to have brought

 into the world such a woman.

So give a thought for her today, a person so  brave and fine that her example lasts after she has gone.

Diana Morris

Commercial

By circumstances unknown, perhaps somebody knew somebody, but in 1975 if I recall, Tanya was cast as a Russian princess in a cinema cigarette commercial. I vaguely remember it was only going to be shown in New Zealand and that was shot at the Directors' Institute in a lush panelled clubroom. Tanya's role consisted of being one of a royal family in a framed photo on a desk of the set filmed in close-up; a common exposition device. There was a film camera doing a complicated dolly-shot and a still photographer using a 10 x 8 plate camera to get the 'billboard' version.  I remember the 'prince' in the photo was very sweet and quite gay and the Grand Dame wasn't at all posh and sat patiently between takes doing her knitting.

A few more photos 69-77

1969

1975 Alberta, Canada with 'cousin' Alison

1977
Back row: Alison, Johnny, Tanya, Diana, Claudia
Front row: Nat, Audrey, Jago, Michelle

My Last Memory of Tanya

The last time I saw my lovely girl she took me to the Gatwick bus in Brighton, and as it pulled out of the bus station, she rode along behind the bus, waving one red-gloved hand, the other being on the handlebar. She was smiling and making faces and blowing kisses. My face was pressed against the back window of the bus, trying to get closer to her.

She was wearing a silver bike helmet and her beautiful long red hair streamed in the wind. She rode along until we got to the motorway where bicycles weren't allowed. I saw her turn off at the roundabout and go back towards Brighton. I watched until she disappeared into the traffic. I was never to see her alive again.

When she died, I was positive that never again could I experience joy: I would be content to simply find some release from anguish. So the last years have been spent in search for spiritual meaning. At the loss of this most beloved child, the notion that "at the heart of creation lies a good intent, a purpose from which we come, by which we live our fullest and to which we return, " the idea that there was a compassionate Creator of the Universe, vanished.

It is a beautiful and comforting belief. But why then is there so much suffering in the world? All the joy in my life seeped away, like air from a balloon. The energy which comes from love slipped away too, on silent feet into the dark night.

That love that I had for her, and the sense of purpose that I had, just to be her mother, evaporated. She was no longer there with Kim in her blue house, high on the hill above Brighton, looking over the English Channel.

When I go there, I stand at the window, looking over the garden to the grey sea. There is an apple tree under which I planted bluebells, and a bird feeder. It is a holy place. But she is not there.

Diana Morris

September 2013

smallislandgraphics (at) yahoo.com

Centre for Corporate Accountability - death record

Tanya Bocking

Name	Age	Date of death	Status	Local Authority	Industry	Immediate Employer
Tanya Bocking	41	10 December 2003	Worker		Leisure	Adventure Unlimited

Tanya, an adventure instructor and operations director of Adventure Unlimited, was preparing to give a zip wire lesson to a disabled man with a cerebral palsy sufferer at Blackland Farm activity centre in East Grinstead.

The disabled man's carer raised the alarm when she arrived on the scene and found Tanya strangled by her helmet strap on the 45ft long slide. A second harness, which would usually have been attached to a zip wire, was on the ground beneath her.

Staff could not resuscitate Ms Bocking, and she was pronounced dead on arrival at the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.

The inquest was held at East Sussex Coroner’s Court in February 2005 and returned a verdict of Misadventure. Pathologist Andrew Rainey said the cause of death was given as asphyxiation due to ligature strangulation.

Coroner Alan Craze said, 'Because of her experience I do not believe on the balance of probability she would have deliberately set off down the zip wire with the karabina in the position where it was found, suspended by the top (chest) harness alone. The dangers are obvious and it would be at the very best an uncomfortable ride. Whatever went wrong went wrong up on the (zip wire) platform... that is where she got in trouble. Whether she attempted to get out of the situation and by accident put her foot in the wrong place and then fell off I don't know but I am reasonably satisfied she did step off by accident.'

Speaking after the hearing, Tanya's brother Nat Bocking called for tighter safety measures at outdoor centres to prevent similar accidents. 'Measures such as handrails on the platform might have saved her life,' he said.

Media Coverage
Title	Source	Date of Article
Cliff descent gives Tanya fund a big lift	The Argus	19 September 2005
Fund is a tribute to caring Tanya	The Argus	18 August 2005
Zip wire rider killed by her helmet	The Argus	25 February 2005
Helmet strap strangled instructor	BBC News	24 February 2005
Funeral for slide death woman	BBC News	29 December 2003
Family devastated by slide death	BBC News	11 December 2003
Tribute to popular outdoors instructor	The Argus	30 December 2003

Call for more zip wire regulation after accidental death

The circumstances of Tanya's death and the inquest afterwards were profoundly distressing for Tanya's friends and family, as they would be any sudden death. The long wait between the accident in December 2003 and the inquest in February 2005 was unbearable for all concerned as the wheels of the investigation slowly turned.

Immediately after the inquest I gave a statement to the media saying that Tanya would not want to deter anyone from participating in outdoor activities but the family had been surprised at the lack of regulation of zip wires and that perhaps in light of this accident and others there should be some guidelines on their design. 

The coroner said that "whatever went wrong went wrong up on the (zip wire) platform... that is where she got in trouble. Whether she (Tanya) attempted to get out of the situation and by accident put her foot in the wrong place and then fell off I don't know but I am reasonably satisfied she did step off by accident." I said in that case, measures such as handrails and toe rails on the platform might have saved her life.

Sadly no regulations or recommendations were put in place and today another family and a coroner is calling for better regulation of zip-wires after another long-awaited inquest into a zip-wire death in 2011.

The BBC reported:

More regulations are needed for zip wires says a coroner, after an 11-year-old boy's death in a fall at a theme park was ruled as accidental.

Bailey Sumner, from Blackpool, had been wrongly attached to rope at Greenwood Forest Park near Caernarfon on Easter Sunday in 2011, an inquest jury heard.

Wales Online also reported the tragedy:

Zipwire death of schoolboy Bailey Sumner was an accident inquest decides

Grandfather Philip Lonsdale said he was “absolutely amazed” there was no need for zipwire rides to be licensed or inspected.

The death of a schoolboy who fell to his death from a zip-wire ride was an accident, an inquest jury has decided.

Bailey Sumner was visiting the Greenwood Forest Park near Felinheli, near Bangor, on Easter Sunday two years ago when he fell from the newly installed Swampflyer ride and suffered serious head injuries.

His mother Dawn, who was waiting for the 11 year old at the bottom of the ride, rushed to his side within seconds of the fall. She was with him at Ysbyty Gwynedd, where he later died.

She was too upset to speak after the three-day hearing at Dolgellau today but Bailey’s grandfather Philip Lonsdale said he was “absolutely amazed” there was no need for zipwire rides to be licensed or inspected.

He said:  “I think it very important the Government step in to ensure there are regulations to cover zipwires. It’s been apparent throughout that advice and guidance have not been available.

“The Greenwood Park tried their best to get the advice they needed and they were let down.”

Mr Lonsdale urged the Greenwood Park owners to reopen the zipwire ride again.

“They should do so in light of what we’ve heard today and if they do I’ll be the first to ride it,” he said

North Wales coroner Nicola Jones, sitting at Dolgellau Magistrates Court, said she will be writing to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and other agencies demanding action be taken to prevent tragedies like Bailey’s death.

She said: “Stephen Bristow [owner of Greenwood Forest Park] continually sought guidance but none was available. The lack of guidance played a significant part in how Bailey came to die.”

After the hearing Mr Bristow said: “The safety of our visitors is our top priority and we welcome the coroner’s move to urge the HSE to consider whether specific guidance should be drafted and made publicly available to ensure a tragic accident like this does not happen again.

“The tragic death of Bailey has deeply affected and saddened everyone at Greenwood and our thoughts are with the family at this difficult time.”

But Gwynedd council last night confirmed its investigations into the incident are continuing. An official was present throughout the hearing.

A spokesman said:  “We are continuing to carry out investigations into possible regulatory breaches concerning the tragic incident at Greenwood Forest Park. Our officers have been carefully considering all the possible options before deciding what action is necessary.

“Now that the inquest has come to an end, we will be moving forward to pursue these actions.”

The jury heard Bailey, from Blackpool, may have fallen because he was attached to the zipwire by a false loop in a lanyard.

It has also been suggested Bailey had tampered with a carabiner clip on a lanyard which attached his harness to the zipwire.

But Mr Bristow, recalled to answer questions about this point yesterday, said the clips used at Greenwood Forest Park were “very difficult to open”

The coroner ordered the jury to disregard this evidence during their deliberations.

The jury also heard evidence from health and safety experts yesterday.

David Riley, of the Health and Safety Laboratory, who carry out tests on behalf of the HSE, said he had considered the system used at the park.

Asked by the coroner if “human error was a latent failure” in the system he replied “that is my opinion”.

The jury heard the specialist company which installed the ride also trained senior park staff.

Asked about the training manual, expert witness Paul McCann said: “Its details are sketchy and not tailored to the needs of  the park. I would expect something more specific.”

Barrister Kevin Elliott, for Greenwood Forest Park, asked if the HSE had issued any guidance about the perils of zipwire operation.

Mr McCann said: “I’m not sure but I believe there should be.”

Another expert, Louise Robinson, said she was not aware of any other incident involving false loops leading to injury in her 10 years’ experience as a health and safety inspector
.

Brighton Pride 1994

About 34 seconds into this film, there is Tanya in some outrageous striped trousers carrying a flag in Brighton's 1994 LGBT Pride Parade. If I recall, Tanya joined (started?) an organised flag waving team and took part in many parades in her lifetime.

Some interesting discourse on history of Brighton Pride by Reflections in the Greenhouse

"...We had also begun to take our history seriously; the campaign against Section 28 spawned the wonderful Brighton Ourstory project. One of the highlights of Pride in 1991 was a walking tour of queer history in the city, led by Ourstory founder Tom Sargant. We knew that there had been a Pride parade in Brighton in 1973, but that the momentum had been lost and there had been no local Pride events since."

Louisa's Memories

I was at Elliot School in Putney with Tanya, we were in the same class and good friends. 

I've thought about her so often over the years, wondered what she was up to and sure that it would be something great and good. 

I'm not a Facebooker or anything and today I thought I'd just tap her name into Google to see if I could find her and came across the tragic news. I'm so, so sorry and my heart goes out to all of you. 

I just wanted to tell you that she was the one person that made school bearable (just!) for me. She was a good friend and a mother-hen rolled into one and oh, she was so cool! 

Looked great, was funny, interesting and bloody clever and SO capable. I remember wanting just a bit of her capability, wanted just to be a little bit like her so that I could deal with the world better. We thought everyone else were twits at school, bar a few. 

She shaved off an eyebrow once (I'm pretty sure it was just one), showed it to me in the middle of a class, I thought it was fantastic, hardcore punk! I had wondered why she had been smoothing down her fringe more than usual. I remember asking her why she had done it and she said it was because she was bored! 

photo of "Louweeza" taken by Tanya
(a dodgy phone scan)

I recognised her writing from your A-Z of Fatherhood photo, I've still got loads of scrappy little notes that we'd pass around in class.

I don't know why I've still got these things, they're just in a big box of old stuff. Glad I have got them though. I remember your place in St Peter's Square, was Stiff Records near to you (it was Island Records) I seem to think it was? 

After one particular summer holiday, we were back at school with a lot to talk about, you'd all been away on the set of Escape to Athena, (my step father was/is an actor, so I remember the film) and I'd had an adventurous summer too. LOTS of notes flying around the class. 

The photo you have up as your favourite one is exactly how I remember Tanya - beautiful. I remember her laugh very well, and funnily, I remember her hands, she had lovely hands. 

I knew Tanya would go on to great and good and it seems she did.

What a gal! I'm proud to have known her even just for that short, young time.

Louisa (was Marinker)

Ancestors: Harry Morris

Virtual Museum of Canada

The conceit of the BBC television programme 'Who Do You Think You Are' is that something interesting about a person's ancestors is still apparent in the descendants. I think anyone who knew Tanya would not dispute any assertion that in her genes are the hardy fishermen who colonised Newfoundland in the beginning of the sixteenth century. From 1583 to 1907 Newfoundland was a British colony, then a self governing dominion which only became part of Canada in 1947.

One of its more remarkable scions was Tanya's grandfather; Major Harry Victor Morris MD whose compassion and heroism deserves much more recognition than he has had until now.

Harry was born in Trinity, Newfoundland in 1913. He was the only son of Orlando Morris whose father was Joseph Morris, a son of a James Morris, who would be Tanya's great great great-grandfather. An ancestor Samuel Morrice arrived in Trinity around 1765 from Salisbury, England but the name comes from Caernarfon and the surrounding area in Wales. Many of the early settlers of Newfoundland came from Poole in Dorset.

The Trinity Historical Society has ledgers of Joseph Morris and Sons which was listed in a local business directory as a: 'general dealer and exporter of codfish, herring and other pickled fish, importer of British, American and Canadian goods established in 1862.'

This business was first started by James Morris about 1840 around when his eldest son Joseph was born to his wife Tamasin Stone. In 1862 the business became James Morris and Sons. In 1873 the business moved from Cockles Cove (a back cove of Trinity) to Trinity, Newfoundland. 

Apr. 2, 1887

News

The Trinity Sealing Fleet - The good people of Trinity, encouraged by the good news of the approach of the whitecoats have fitted out quite a number of sealing craft. There are now (says the Record of the 23rd March) 17 schooners ready and waiting to get out and try their chances. The following are the names of the vessels and masters: - Mary, Richard FOWLOW; Promise, Thomas FOWLOW; Royal Arch, John FOWLOW; Dauntless, Joseph BUTLER; Mariner, John RANDELL; Water Lily, Wm. CONNOLLY; Arctic, Joseph MORRIS; Mary Grace, Robert FOWLOW; Kata, Aubrey CROCKER; Dart, Charles LANDER; Repeater, -----RYAN; Mary Day, Stephen DAY; Elizabeth, James GOSSE; Piscator, SPRAGUE FREEMAN; Lady Glover, Wm. BUTLER; Susannah, Alex PLOWMAN, Flying Cloud, Thomas Leonard.

In 1889 the business was owned solely by James Morris and his eldest son Joseph as two other brothers, Henry and Jacob, had sold out their shares and the business became known as J & J Morris. When James Morris died, he left the business to Joseph, who changed the name of the business to Joseph Morris. Joseph married a Christina Crocker.

Joseph Morris

Joseph Morris founded an insurance company in cooperation with other leading merchants of the area for the benefit of merchants and vessel owners along the coast. Its territory extended from Cape Freels in the North to St. John's in the South. It was named the Trinity Mutual Marine Insurance Company with its headquarters in Trinity and Joseph Morris its first president. This was the first insurance company in its class in the country and most of the vessels of that day were insured with it.

In 1894, just a year after taking over the business, Joseph Morris ran into a terrible calamity, the cause of which was the bank crash of the Commercial Bank in St. John's. Overnight Joseph Morris discovered that he had lost heavily in the crash and he was more than broke as his business had lost all its cash assets and that he was in debt to his creditors to the tune of about ten thousand dollars. He was able to talk his creditors into giving him a stay of execution. From there he worked his way back up through his insurance company and in 1899 the company insured 324 vessels owned by 125 owners and firms. The company continued to grow until 1909, in this year insurance was carried on 368 vessels with 14,012 in combined tonnage and the total insured value was $428,932.00

In 1903 the trading name was changed to Joseph Morris and Sons, when Joseph’s eldest son Orlando (born 1880) began to work for his father as a bookkeeper. Two other sons, Stephen (born 1883) and Frederick (born 1887) joined the family business later. There was a daughter Effie (born 1885) as well. Orlando married a Lillian Fowlow (but for some reason her name is recorded on their son's birth certificate as Sarah Morris).

On 19 September 1907 one of the company's ships the Effie M. returning home laden from a summer's fishing catch ran aground in Lead Cove Trinity and was lost with all hands in a terrible storm. As the master of the ship was reported as Frederick Morris, Joseph Morris received letters of condolence but it was a different Fred Morris, a man from Trouty, who was lost while his own son Fred was then at sea on the schooner Romeo. Joseph wrote to the Evening Telegram to explain. His son Orlando Morris is reported in the newspaper as acting for him, the owner. In all 90 Newfoundland ships were lost on that day.

Orlando and Lillian suffered a personal tragedy in 1911 when their first child, Joseph Robert, died at the age of two months on 17th December. His and other family graves are in the New Anglican Cemetery in Trinity, Newfoundland.

But it was 1916 which was the disastrous year for the Morris clan. In the space of two months, two of Joseph's three sons were killed, their wives widowed and children orphaned.

Britain declared war on Germany on August 14th 1914. Four days later Newfoundland, the oldest colony of the British Empire, telegraphed London committing the colony to raise one thousand men for the naval service and several hundred for land service abroad. From the Trinity area, 233 volunteers enlisted for service, mostly with the Newfoundland Regiment or the Newfoundland Royal Naval Reserve.

Stephen Crocker Morris had left the business in 1912 and gone out to Western Canada and worked as a salesman in Calgary, Alberta for Standard Brands Ltd. In 1914 he joined the Canadian Army but he died in Ypres, Belgium in July 1916 when he was struck on his motorcyle by a train at a level crossing. A enquiry found only the victim could know the cause of the accident.

In September of the same year Orlando (Harry's father), the captain of a schooner named after his infant son was lost at sea. There is a plaque to his memory.

Private Arthur Maidement, a solider from Trinity who was heading to the front in France, records the aftermath in a letter to his brother Harry dated October 26, 1916, sent from Newton on Ayr, Scotland, the training camp for the Newfoundland Regiment. Maidement too did not survive the war.

'Poor Jim Locke met a sad end and so did the rest of them. Adam's wife must be in a dreadful way about him and Sarah Guy. I seem to hear them now screeching and bawling.'

Jim Locke, Adam Lucas and Robert Guy comprised part of the crew of the schooner 'H. V. Morris' which left Trinity on September 23, 1916 for St. John's loaded with fish. They expected to be in St. John's the next day and when no message came, an extensive search of the coast from Trinity to St. John's was made but no trace was found, not even a piece of wreckage. The search was later abandoned with the vessel recorded as being lost with all hands. Diana Morris recalls her grandmother Lillian Morris telling her all the men knew the run very well and so it was presumed they had hit an iceberg.

For Joseph Morris losing two sons so close together had a great effect. He withdrew into semi-retirement and left the running of the business to son Frederick who took over in 1919. Joseph passed away in 1923 and left the business to Frederick who changed the business name to his own until 1947 when the company then changed to Morris and Company Limited. Joseph left a cash settlement to his daughter Effie and to his grandson Harry a house and land called Sea Side Villa. Fred also took over the operation of the insurance company but by 1923 it was decided to close down by voluntary liquidation. Frederick J. Morris died in 1961.

Trinity Tennis Club 1900
Front Row:

Emmie Collins, Blanche Earle, Edith Lillian Mallam, Effie Morris Tulk, Winnie Hollands Morris, Stephen Morris, Beatrice (Lilly) Noel, Faith Hollands Rusted, Bess Green 
Back Row:

Sophie Pittman Gent, Rachael White, Ettie White, Fanny Collis, Sam Grant, Lill Fowlow Morris, Nellie Christian Pickering, Pet Hollands, Frances Pittman Erikson, John Lockyer, Minnis Ash ?, Floss Pittman Mews, Bess Ash Foster, Orlando Morris, Rev. C.W. Hollands, [Mrs. ?] Pittman, Fredricia White Stickings ?, Dr. Arthur White, Charles Green

Courtesy of The Trinity Historical Society Archives

Family folklore is that Harry's mother Lillian never got over the death of her husband and every day she laid a place at the table for him.

The Daily News January 31, 1955 Page: 14

Lillian Morris - Passed away peacefully on Saturday morning, January 29th, Lillian, widow of the late Orlando J. Morris of Trinity, in her 73rd year. She is survived by a daughter, Mrs. Stuart Godfrey and a son Dr. Harry V. Morris, medical attache to the Canadian Embassy, Athens, Greece; also by sisters Mrs. Edith King and Mrs. H. R. Lilly of St. John's and Misses Mary, Katherine, Rachel and May Fowlow at Trinity. Funeral on Monday, January 31st at 11 a.m. from 4 Appledore Place to the Church of England Cathedral.

The Morris family business lasted in operation until the 1970's with Frederick's son Stephen Rupert taking over the business. Rupert also opened the first tourism cabins in Trinity in 1948 which are still going in Trinity although not run by a family member as Rupert sold the business to an employee back in the 1990's. Rupert was also the founding President of the Trinity Historical Society in 1964.

Capt. Harry Morris,  Capt. George Bell, Capt. George Kinloch, Lt. Arthur Cramsie, Lt. Ronald Mill

Retired banker Bob Hyslop wrote a tribute to Harry Morris in the Clarenville Packet, one of a series of award winning columns on local history to which I have added a few notes:

Imagine life without Harry Victor Morris.

Who? I’m about to tell you who he was, how we almost lost him and why it would have been a tragedy if we did. 

He was born in Trinity in 1913. His father, Orlando James Morris died at sea when Harry was just three years old. Orlando worked for the Morris Co., which was owned by his father Joseph. He usually skippered the Morris vessels which brought supplies back and forth from Trinity to St. John’s. 

With her husband lost at sea, Harry’s mother Lillian was left to raise her two young children, Harry and his one year old sister, alone. She never remarried. 

In the days before social assistance or benefits for widows, Harry’s mother found jobs where she could to provide for her family. She worked as a telegrapher and probably found work with the firm owned by her father-in-law Joseph Morris. 

In those days that would have been a crippling handicap for any young lad who dreamed of higher education. He received his early education at St. Paul’s and for most of his classmates in those days, that would have been it. Harry, however, went on to Prince of Wales College in St. John’s to complete his high school. 

My kids often accuse me of belabouring my point but it is true that higher education opens more doors. Next, he was welcomed by Dalhousie University in Halifax. After completing his pre-medicine degree at Dalhousie, Harry went on to Queen’s University in Kingston. In 1936, he graduated as a Doctor of Medicine. Not bad for an orphan from outport Newfoundland. 

Armed with such credentials, what do you do if you come from a far flung outpost of the Empire? Go to a farther flung outpost, naturally. About the same time my father had to choose between Newfoundland and Burma, Harry went the other way and joined the British Army. In those days, the Indian Army was a part of the British Army. 

Morris was immediately commissioned as a Captain in the medical service of the Indian army. See what an education can do for you. With the war clouds gathering around the world, he was sent to Singapore to help defend it from the “yellow peril.” The small city state off the tip of the Malay peninsula was as well defended as any place could be back in those days. Huge guns stood poised to sweep the sea clean of any water-born invaders. The Japanese had no notion of playing cricket by the rules and approached Singapore from the rear through the supposedly impenetrable jungle. Those guns could not be turned around and the city was largely defenceless. The outcome was never in doubt and the subsequent surrender saw many thousands of men pass into captivity for the duration of the war. Among them was Captain Harry Morris. 

The Japanese were not signatories to the Geneva Convention which set the rules for the treatment of prisoners of war. They used their captives as slave labourers and worked a great many of them to death. Without medical supplies from their captors, Harry and the rest of the medical corps worked miracles of ingenuity, performing blood transfusions and surgery with bicycle parts and bamboo shoots. Despite their efforts, it was a miserable existence for those who managed to endure.

Five months after he was actually captured, his mother got word that he was a prisoner of war. A letter dated July 14, 1942, from the India Office, Westminster, London, informed Mrs. Morris that her son was serving with the forces in Malaya prior to the fall of Singapore. 

“No report of any casualty to him has been received and it is possible, therefore, that he is now a prisoner of war in Japanese hands but this cannot be confirmed in the absence of positive information. Efforts are being made to obtain further information, but it is feared that some time may elapse before any is forthcoming.” 

Harry’s nephew, Peter Godfrey, (now deceased) says there are no records in the family history to indicate Harry’s mother had any correspondence from him while he was a prisoner of war. He says it’s likely she didn't know of his welfare until after the war ended and the prisoners were set free. 

Imprisonment in Singapore was followed up by more of the same in Seoul, Korea where he was finally released by allied armies in 1945. Perhaps because of what he experienced during his years in captivity, he decided to dedicate his life to helping others. 

Following his freedom, Morris signed up with the Allied Army of Occupation in Germany, helping tend to the medical needs of a society that had been on the losing end of the war. During the 1950s his medical career took him to the Canadian Embassy in Greece, (and Belgium) Dublin and Barbados and finally back to Canada. 

He ended his working days at Lion’s Gate Hospital in Vancouver where he set up the institution’s emergency services department. A bronze plaque in recognition of his efforts is in the hospital’s entrance.  

 

 

He died in Vancouver in 1979 and his ashes were scattered near his home on Pender Island.

Harry was the quintessential Newfoundlander abroad being a credit to his race in particular and mankind in general. We owe it to our kids to educate them well enough to “be all you can be” as the forces recruiting ads proclaim. Above all, we must never forget Harry and his kind for the sacrifice they made, and are still making today, on our behalf.

The photo of the five officers at Konan was taken on 26th March 1944 by a Japanese guard Torisu who seemed to be well disposed towards the officers and it was supplied by John Mill, the son of Lieut. Ronald Mill, the sole Australian officer at the camp who also kept a diary. Besides him and Harry Morris, the only other officers in the camp were Capt. George Kinloch (the Senior British Officer), Capt. George Bell, the camp dentist from Cirencester and Lieut. Arthur Cramsie from Ireland. They were together in Changi POW camp in Singapore, Keijo camp (now Seoul) and Konan.

Harry married Phyllis Tapp on October 20th 1938 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She had been born in 1913 in Winnipeg. Her father William Tapp was born in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland. He was an entrepreneur who had a varied career during the depression, depending on the market and what jobs were available. In Halifax he was an auctioneer and had a drapers called Tapp's Tot's Toggery. It is believed he was a Grand Vizier within the Freemasons. Phyllis' mother was Mary Rebecca Fraser. It could be supposed that it is this Norman-Celtic lineage where Tanya got her splendid red hair.

When Harry joined the Indian Medical Service, he and Phyllis went to London for him to study tropical medicine. They then went (sailing on the Castalia) to Lahore in India where their first child Diana, Tanya's mother, was born in July 1939. A son David came along 18 months later in Johore, Malaysia.

It was a great surprise to discover that Harry Morris has been subject of detailed research into the flight and downing by Soviet aircraft of the B-29 'Hog Wild'. This incident is reckoned by some to be the beginning of the 'Cold War'. The National Library of Scotland reports on its blog:

On August 29th 1945, the B-29 aircraft 'Hog Wild' was on a POW supply mission when it was shot down by Soviet fighters. Its 13-man crew was interned in the Konan POW camp (now Hungnam, North Korea) for sixteen days while Soviet and American commanders negotiated for their release.

The camp already held 354 Allied POWs (mostly British) who were captured during the fall of Singapore in 1942. One of the prisoners was Canadian, Captain Harry V. Morris who had served in the Indian Medical Service.

Harry (and Phyllis) arrived in India in early 1939. He was stationed at the Indian General Hospital, Lahore and then moved to No.12 Indian General Hospital in Malaya. 

It is thought that he was captured by the Japanese in February 1942, held first in the notorious Changi Prison in Singapore and North-East Korean POW camp (Keijo Camp and then to Konan). His wife and two children escaped Singapore. 

His daughter Diana Morris has very vivid recollections of shells and bombs falling on Singapore which eventually surrendered to the Japanese on 15th February 1942. Phyllis recalled in a newspaper interview she had returned to her house from her job as a secretary at the Fighter Defence Command and found their garage was a smouldering crater, a stick of bombs had just missed the house and her two children being cared for by their ayas. Harry telephoned her and said the Japanese were rolling through the jungle unmolested and all women with two or more children were being evacuated to India and Australia on the troopships that had brought reinforcements. She recalled that with her knowledge of the political situation in India, she stood a better chance of getting home if they went to Australia. In the midst of an air-raid, she and her two children with one trunk of possessions got onto the passenger steamer SS Narkunda with twentyfive hundred civilians (the capacity was 426 first and 247 second class). The passenger list says they departed Singapore on 21 January, arriving in Freemantle, Western Australia on 24 January 1942 but other witnesses state they left on the 16th, which makes more sense given the the Narkunda's top speed of 17 knots couldn't make a 2700 nm journey in less than seven days.

SS Narkunda

SS Narkunda passenger list. National Archives of Australia

Phyliss recounted to the newspaper the breakdown of society as Singapore fell and how the English had been complacent and thought themselves safe from attack and how their actions engendered hatred from the natives. "White women who had lived in luxury with several servants were incapable of helping themselves..." she recalled. In another newspaper interview she reported conditions on board were filthy and overcrowded and six children died from dysentery on the journey. Sailing along with the Aorangi, they were bombed and fired on by Japanese aircraft until they picked up an escort near Java which left them after two days but they were tracked by hostile reconnaissance aircraft the entire journey. The Narkunda was later sunk by an Italian submarine on 14 November 1942 off North Africa.

On the voyage their son David was very frail and he only survived because Phyllis had on Harry's advice packed a tin of glucose. Both Phyllis and David became very sick and had to spend a month in hospital on arrival in Australia while Diana was cared for by nuns. On 8 May 1942 after a journey fraught with danger from floating mines they arrived in San Francisco from Melbourne aboard the SS President Coolidge. According to Phyllis, when departing Melbourne she had apparently enlisted the help of an American officer standing near the gangplank to hold her baby son whilst she fetched her bags and the toddler Diana from the taxi. He turned out to be General Douglas MacArthur! Diana recalls that on arrival they were greeted by the Canadian-born Hollywood superstar Deanna Durbin. The President Coolidge was later sunk by mines in October 1942 off Vanuatu, though 5,340 troops aboard got off safely. Lying in shallow water, it is now considered one of the world's best wreck diving sites.

In the United States Phyllis gave talks for the Red Cross and newspaper interviews about their experiences in San Francisco, Hollywood and Boston as she and her children travelled home by rail across the USA to Maine where Phyllis' sister Edith lived and then by a ferry to Halifax.

On arriving home, Phyllis gave an interview to the Halifax Herald published June 2nd 1942 recounting their miraculous escape. She had heard from an Australian doctor that Harry Morris had been seen on the morning Singapore fell working at the hospital and she had confirmation from the Army he was not on any casualty lists so at that time she could only hope he had been taken prisoner.

Dr. H. V. Morris, a graduate of Queen's University 1936, who practiced in Hamilton and Shelbourne, Ontario, is reported a prisoner of war in Seoul, Korea. Dr. Morris was the only Ontario doctor with the Armed Forces serving in that part of the east. He had been stationed at Singapore. Canadian Medical Association Journal, Vol. 48, Feb. 1943, p. 48

Major Morris was transferred to Konan and imprisoned by the Japanese for a further two years where he was one of five Allied officers at the camp. The men laboured long hours under extremely hazardous and strenuous conditions at a nearby carbide factory although the Japanese wouldn't permit an officer from doing any work of the sort. The crew of the Hog Wild were released in mid-September 1945; Major Morris and his fellow POWs were finally freed and repatriated a week later. The aircraft crew talked to the American Press, revealing the people, places and events surrounding the downing of the B-29.

The conditions in Changi were inhumane but those in Konan were even worse and the conditions in which the POWs were transported from Changi to Korea were as appalling as African slave ships. For many POWs their 40 day voyage from Singapore to Korea on the 'Fukkai Maru' was their worst experience of captivity. There is a book of sketches of camp life and the voyage drawn by J.D. Wilkinson, an Australian.

J D Wilkinson

The POWs at Konan were put to work manufacturing carbide, British POW Dick Sawbrick recalled:

We were to supply a work force for the main plant there. To the best of my knowledge the fuel for most if not all vehicles in Korea was that of carbide. It was part of our function to feed the carbide furnaces at the plant. There were four furnaces situated on an upper floor. Each furnace was about 40' diameter and of a circular shape. The task comprised of feeding the furnaces with a limestone product and coal. During an eight hour stint to the best of my recollection there were three man teams to each furnace. The task involved feeding the furnace at high speed otherwise the surface contents of the furnace became white hot and conditions of work became even more akin to being in part of Dante's Inferno. Each man completed twenty minutes work followed by a forty minute break during which period two other teams did their stint. Each five days we completed a twelve hour shift for purpose of changing to next shift. The furnaces were manned twenty four hours of each day. Because of the activity involved and the nature of the work there was generally a permanent dust cloud.

September 1945 Konan POW Camp, Korea. No 3 Squad, Sgt Lyons.159
Front row, second from left awaiting 100% positive ID as Harry Morris

Another British camp survivor James Miller recalls Dr. Morris telling him that under such conditions they couldn't expect to live much longer than a year which encouraged James to plan an escape. Miller and other prisoners with foundry expertise managed to pull off elaborate acts of sabotage, stopping the carbide production. When food was dropped by several B-29s (one presumably the Hog Wild) Dr. Morris warned the prisoners not to gorge themselves.

When the Russians liberated Konan, there were further atrocities. A declassified communique sent on 28th September 1945 by Leonard E. Bardsell of the Australian Department of Information found in the President Truman Library cites a Canadian doctor 'George' Morris (surely Bardsell meant Harry) treating the local population:

"I might add at this juncture that the camp doctor, Captain George Morris, a Canadian attached to the Indian Medical Service (thus this could only be Harry Morris) before being captured in Singapore, after the prisoners took over the camp themselves, daily treated dozens of Jap (sic) and Korean women and children. He refused no one. This went on until the prisoners left. His fame went abroad: so much that he had women calling on him from ten miles distant."

John Mill relates; "in no small effort by your grandfather there, were only 5 deaths out of the 350 men at the camp, and most of those were near the end of the was when the Japanese were running out of medicines. The camp was situated next to a malarial swamp and so mosquito borne illnesses were common. The men who died or were gravely ill suffered from illnesses which today would be considered easily treatable and even in those times, a good course of penicillin would have done the trick."

I think it is this kind of selfless humanity which really shows the measure of the man that was Harry Morris. He is an inspiration to his descendants and all of us who now live in the free world owe him and millions of others an eternal debt of remembrance.

You can read much more about the Hog Wild in a forthcoming book.

So what is so extraordinary about the Hog Wild? On Oct. 3, 1946, American journalist David Snell wrote a front-page headline story in the Atlanta Constitution which claimed that Japanese scientists had built and tested an atomic weapon at sea, just days before Japan surrendered.

When Soviet forces arrived in Hungnam, they discovered the Japanese nuclear facility, kidnapped six of its scientists, and tortured them for their atomic "know-how."

Snell speculated that the Hog Wild was downed by the Soviets to keep the crew from discovering the former-Japanese nuclear facility.

Harry arrived home in Halifax on 19 November 1945 after travelling via Manila, San Francisco and New York. Diana recalls being awoken and reacting in horror at the gaunt stranger sitting at the foot of her bed and being told this was her father. In a letter written a month later, Phyllis attributes her husband's survival and recovery with few ill effects except for "a few readjustments" after three years and ten months captivity to his "solid Newfoundland constitution".

Harry's son David recalls his father saying the Australians suffered most at the hands of the Japanese because they were less likely to kow-tow to the guards and more inclined to act with pride and dignity rather than the shame expected by their captors. Several close family members say they cannot recall Harry ever speaking of his POW experiences.

While Harry is often cited as a Major, during his internment he was just a Captain which is a junior rank. In November 1947 while serving with the Indian Medical Service on the Northwest Frontier - presently North Waziristan in what is now Pakistan - he was promoted to Major. Copies exist of letters he wrote to the authorities to complain that for promotion purposes he had been 'frozen' as a POW despite his duties as camp doctor, while if he had held a nice, safe job back in India he would have been promoted years earlier.

MORRIS DESCENT

Information from the Anglican Parish of Trinity Church Records that are held in the Trinity Historical Society Archives, Trinity, NL, Canada and family trees on record.

1.  Samuel Morrice [b.circa 1749] From St. Edmund, Salisbury, England
     Sp.1. Mary Pinhorn [c.02-09-1761] [bur.04-08-1818] dau. of Benjamin & Elizabeth
Married 24-06-1782 in Trinity
2.  Joseph Morrice [c.14-06-1786] age 6 mts., Trinity [d.21-01-1876] Cuckhold’s Cove
    Sp. Elizabeth Wiseman [c.03-11-1789] [d.28-02-1861] Cuckolds’ Cove, dau of John & Mary
          Married 26-10-1807 in Trinity
3.  James Morice [b.28-11-1811] Cuckold’s Cove
    Sp. Tamassin (Tamour) Stone [b.27-06-1811] Bonaventure, dau of Henry & Mary
Married 11-11-1835 in Trinity
4.  Joseph Morris [b.10-12-1840] Cuckold’s Cove [d.15-10-1923]
    Sp. Christina Crocker [c.05-11-1848] Trinity [d.26-12-1932] Portugal Cove, bur in Trinity, dau of Stephen & Catherine
Married 07-12-1879 in St. Mary’s Church, St. John’s
5.  Orlando James Morris [b.19-08-1881] Trinity [d.25-09-1916] lost with schooner H.V. Morris
    Sp. Sarah Lillian Fowlow [b.18-12-1881] Trinity East [d.29-01-1955] St. John’s, dau of Robert
Married 29-09-1909 in Christ Church, Trinity East
6.  Henry Victor Morris [b.10-12-1913] Trinity [d.Nov 79] Vancouver, BC
    Sp.1 Phyllis Tapp
7.  Diana Morris [b. 1939]
Sp.1 Geoffrey Bocking [b. 10.4.1919] Ealing UK [d. 1969] Wiltshire, UK
Married 1960 in London
8. Tanya Bocking [b. 1963] Bradford on Avon UK [d. 2003] E. Sussex UK