INNISFAIL – When Tom Cresswell Morton was a teenager during the early years of the Second World War he worked full-time on a farm next to his family’s acreage.
Life was tough for most rural families back then, and he had to help support his family.
Tom was the second oldest of seven children living with their parents David and Annie in a modest rural home by the bank of the Red Deer River; 13 kilometres northwest of Innisfail, and eight kilometres west of Penhold.
He attended the one-classroom Westholm School near Innisfail and was well liked by his teacher and other students for his kindness, enviable worth ethic and generosity.
Tom was a healthy, handsome young man with blue eyes and blond hair, weighing 147 pounds and five-feet seven inches tall.
He considered the heavy labour duties of farming a passion, even if it barely earned him a dollar a day.
But he was determined to make his earnings count for his family.
When he came home on Sundays, he always brought a special gift.
With his hard-earned money, he purchased a chocolate bar.
“He would break it into squares, and there were enough squares for everybody in the family to have one, and there was one extra,” said Tom’s youngest sister Mary Huntly (nee Morton). “And he always gave that to his dad.”
The war calls
Like tens of thousands of other boys his age across Canada, Tom not only heard the call but embraced it.
The young man was all in for king and country.
He volunteered for service in the Canadian Army on Nov. 24, 1942 at the age of 18.
Tom was still a boy in the eyes of the family he adored.
He wanted to please them no matter what, despite their deep reservations about him going off to war.
With his first army pay cheque he bought his mother her first power washing machine.
“She used to do it all by hand, and her knuckles would have calluses on them from scrubbing on that scrub board,” said Mary.
After training in Red Deer and Edmonton, Tom headed overseas to England on April 30, 1944.
He was sent across the English Channel and into action with the Calgary Highlanders Regiment by the end of September.
Back home his father David was terrified.
He was a First World War veteran who encountered the hell of trench warfare.
David never talked about it.
But twice a day in the final months of 1944 and into the following year, he sat beside an old radio at home to listen to the news of any Canadians in combat.
“He just wanted to know what was going on,” said Mary. “He knew most of the time approximately where Tom was, so he kept track on the radio what was going on, where he was.”
Mary’s daughter Elna Edgar believes David was “terrified.”
“He was really upset when Tom enlisted,” said Elna. “I'm sure he was absolutely terrified knowing what he'd been through in the First World War.”
Honour and sacrifice
By October, Pte. Tom Cresswell Morton’s unit was heavily engaged in combat at Hoogerheide in the Netherlands; a battle lasting 72 hours against elite German troops and costing the lives of 30 Highlanders.
After several days of rest, the Highlanders were ordered to capture a piece of land that was closed in by the eastern Scheldt and the railway to Walcheren.
There was more horrific combat with 18 Highlanders killed and 51 wounded.
By Nov. 1, another 107 of Tom’s comrades lost their lives.
Eight days later his regiment was transported 200 kilometres eastwards to Nijmegen, close to the border with Germany.
They were tasked with guarding Maas river bridges up to Grave and patrolling the border near Groesbeek.
For the next five weeks there was training and patrolling.
In the early morning of Jan.10, 1945, the Highlanders were on patrol along the border with Germany, their last before a week’s rest in Nijmegen.
At 6.30 a.m. a team of 12 Highlanders, including Tom, reached a German position on the edge of the Reichswald forest.
But they were discovered and came under fire and withdrew.
Tom was initially reported missing with his family receiving a telegram that he was also wounded.
A second telegram was sent 10 days later that Tom was killed in combat.
The young soldier was buried in a temporary military cemetery to the north of Groesbeek in the Netherlands and reburied at the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery on Aug. 3, 1945.
Among his possessions returned to his parents was a photo of an attractive girl with a note, ‘all my love, Bobbi.´
Never forgotten
It has been a long 80 years since Tom’s passing but Mary, now 91, and daughter Elna, owner and operator of the successful Edgar Farms operation west of Innisfail, were at the Royal Canadian Branch #104 in Innisfail on April 28 to talk about Tom.
On April 1, Elna was told her late uncle’s story of service and valour would not only be featured with 117 other war heroes in a new 320-page book called Faces of Liberation, but his service photo was also chosen for the cover.
Eight stories, including one on Pte. Tom Morton, were born in Alberta, with another six who lived in the province.
“When you look at his picture he looks so young and innocent,” said Elna, who submitted an article about Tom’s service a decade ago to the Faces to Graves foundation that honours the stories and faces of Second World War soldiers buried at the Netherlands’ Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery.
As satisfying as the Faces to Graves initiative was, the book project caught her and Mary totally by surprise as Tom’s valour and sacrifice will receive world-wide attention.
“I was shocked and amazed, and very happy about it,” said Elna.
The book was created to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Netherlands and launched on May 2 at the Freedom Museum in Groesbeek and on May 7 for a gathering at the residence of the Canadian Ambassador to the Netherlands.
Faces of Liberation is described as a “richly illustrated publication” that explores the history of the Canadian War Cemetery in Groesbeek, the final resting place of 2,618 soldiers from Canada and the British Commonwealth.
There are 148 Alberta servicemen buried at Groesbeek, which is 6.5 per cent of the total.
The project is a collaboration between researchers from Radboud University Nijmegen, which is near the Groesbeek cemetery, and volunteers from the Faces to Graves foundation.
The book was co-authored and edited by Frank Mehring and Jaap Verheul, both professors at Radboud University Nijmegen.
“We selected the image of Thomas Cresswell Morton for the front page of Faces of Liberation because he is emblematic of the many young men who sacrificed their lives in the liberation of the Netherlands,” Verheul told the Albertan.
He noted Tom was a member of the Calgary Highlanders Regiment that participated in the pivotal Battle of the Scheldt, and later became one of the fallen during his patrol near the Reichswald, a strategically significant area that claimed the lives of many Canadians during the Rhineland offensive in the latter months of the war.
“Thomas Cresswell Morton stands as a representative of a generation of young Canadians who gave their lives in defence of freedom,” said Verheul. “Their sacrifice is one that must be remembered, particularly today, as the values for which they fought and died once again face significant challenges.”
Mystery love
The courageous and heartwarming story of Pte. Tom Morton has not quite ended.
His heroism and supreme sacrifice for the Canada he loved will be remembered by countless future generations.
His niece Elna was born in 1954 and never knew her uncle but she has always been steadfastly proud of him.
She has already ordered several copies of Faces of Liberation. They will be passed on to many family members.
But there remains a lingering mystery for the entire family, and that is the photo of Bobbi found among Tom’s final military possessions.
“It was an eight by 10 photograph that came home in his personal effects, and we don't have it today. We don't know where the picture went,” said Mary, adding no family member ever mentioned Tom had a special love in his life.
“I saw that picture. Where it went? I don't know,” she added. “But I do remember my mother wondering how she could get in touch with Bobbi to let her know what had happened to Tom.”
Bobbi was never found.
But no matter where or who this mystery young woman is, it’s a good bet she remained in the Canadian hero’s heart until the very end on Jan.10, 1945 at a hellish European battlefield near the Reichswald forest.
And there, amidst heavy gunfire and chaos, Pte. Tom Cresswell Morton embraced two sacred honours - valour and love.
