Lloyd Morrison

MORRISON, Lloyd C. "Mo" Major General (ret'd) At 10:30 pm on February 4th, in London ON, Mo "...slipped the surly bonds of the earth" on his last posting. Born at Deloraine, Manitoba, in 1924, he is survived by second wife Stella, son Don (Cathrine Hritzuk) of Yellowknife, daughters Jan (Ron Budgell), Prospect Bay, N.S. and Judy, Perth ON, stepdaughter Frances (Brian Richert), nine grandchildren, three great grandchildren and many loving nieces and nephews. Predeceased by first wife Bea (McDonald), parents Charlie and Vera, three brothers Ian (Mary), Jim (Olga) and Norman, and by four sisters Ruth (Frank Bawtenheimer), Marge (Jack Austin), Grace (Cliff Levenick) and Pat (Peter Olsen). Mo joined the RCAF on his eighteenth birthday, trained as a pilot and flew Lancaster Bombers with 100 Squadron, RAF, out of Lincolnshire, England until the end of the Second World War. Transferring to the RCAF reserve in 1945, he joined the Regular Force in 1948 and served for another 31 years as a pilot and information officer. His last position was Director General Information at National Defence Headquarters. After retirement he began writing and illustrating a newspaper column titled "From the Back Pew" on visits to churches of all denominations in the Ottawa Valley. A book followed, titled "A Month of Sundays", which included Mo's pen and ink sketches of the 70 churches in it. A newsletter editor for more than 50 years, his last was the "St. James Times" from the parish of St. James Anglican Church in Perth, ON. He was managing director of, and frequent contributor to, "Airforce" magazine for several years. Mo was a truly happy and optimistic man. In self-introductions he invariably described himself as a 'lucky guy' who had been born into the best of circumstances - a large happy family, in a small prairie town during the Great Depression in one of the hardest hit areas of Canada. His 'luck' continued when he was 'allowed' to fly all sorts of airplanes for the first sixteen years of his air force career then to work in the fascinating world of defence and government information. He worked with the most interesting people, in both government and the news media. He counted his first marriage, his three children, and his late-life second marriage as bonuses, and his modest success as a writer and painter more of the same. He recently summed it all up as a great journey. A celebration of Mo's life will be held at St. James, Westminster Anglican Church, 115 Askin St., London ON at 11:00 am, Wednesday, February 9th. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be made to Mo's favourite charity, "WaterCan" www.watercan.com , or any charity of their choice.