Desmond Morton (historian): Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Canadian historian (1937–2019)}}

Born on September 10, 1937,<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=phIQbS5U-TkC&q=Desmond+Morton+September+10,++1937|title=Contemporary Authors|isbn=9780810300354|last1=Evory|first1=Ann|date=April 1978}}</ref> in [[Calgary]], [[Alberta]], Morton was the son of a Brigadier General, and the grandson of General [[William Dillon Otter|Sir William Dillon Otter]]. A [[Rhodes Scholarship|Rhodes Scholar]] at [[Keble College, Oxford]], Morton was a graduate of the [[Collège militaire royal de St-Jean]], the [[Royal Military College of Canada]], and the [[London School of Economics]].<ref name="MISC Bio">{{cite web|year=2011|title=MISC Instructors: Desmond Morton|url=https://www.mcgill.ca/misc/undergraduate/cans/lecturers/|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20111031013824/http://www.mcgill.ca/misc/undergraduate/cans/lecturers/|archive-date=2011-10-31|access-date=2011-10-30|work=McGill Institute for the Study of Canada|publisher=McGill University|location=Montreal}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Preston|first=Richard A.|title=To Serve Canada: A History of the Royal Military College Since the Second World War|publisher=University of Ottawa Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-7766-0327-8|location=Oxford|page=65}}</ref> He received his doctorate from the [[University of London]].<ref name="McGill Bio">{{cite web|year=2011|title=Desmond Morton|url=https://www.mcgill.ca/history/faculty/staff/retired/morton|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140814232405/http://www.mcgill.ca/history/faculty/staff/retired/morton|archive-date=2014-08-14|access-date=2011-10-30|work=History and Classical Studies|publisher=McGill University|location=Montreal}}</ref> He spent ten years in the [[Canadian Army]] (1954&ndash;1964 retiring as a Captain) prior to beginning his teaching career.<ref name="MISC Bio" /> He was named [[Colonel (Canada)#Honorary_ranks_and_appointments|Honorary Colonel]] of 8 Wing of the Canadian Air Force at [[CFB Trenton]] in 2002. He received the [[Canadian Forces' Decoration]] in 2004 for 12 years total military service.<ref name="MISC Bio" />

Morton was the [[Hiram Mills]] Professor of History at [[McGill University]], as well as the founding director of the McGill Institute for the Study of Canada, established in 1994, in [[Montreal]], [[Quebec]].<ref name="McGill Bio" /> Following his retirement, he continued to serve at McGill as a [[professor emeritus]].<ref name="McGill Bio" /> Prior to that, he was Principal of [[University of Toronto Mississauga|Erindale College]], [[University of Toronto]], from 1986 to 1994. He served as Presidentpresident of the [[Canadian Historical Association]] from 1978-1979.<ref>{{Cite web|title=CHA Presidents and Presidential Addresses|url=https://cha-shc.ca/english/about-the-cha/cha-presidential-addresses.html|access-date=2020-07-24|website=cha-shc.ca|language=en}}</ref>

Morton was the author of over thirty-five books on Canada, including the popular ''A Short History of Canada''. In 1994 he won the [[C.P. Stacey Prize]] for his history of Canadian soldiers during the [[First world war|First World War]], ''When Your Number's Up''. He wrote prolifically about the First World War, considering it of great importance in Canadian history. He once wrote: "For Canadians, [[Vimy Ridge]] was a nation -building experience. For some, then and later, it symbolized the fact that the Great War was also Canada's war of independence".<ref>Desmond Morton, ''A Military History of Canada: From Champlain to Kosovo'', Canada, McClelland and Stewart, 1999 (1985), p.145.</ref>

* ''Who Speaks for Canada?'', {{ISBN|0-7710-6502-7}}, (1998) ''(2nd Ed. 2001)'' (with [[Morton Weinfeld]])

[[Category:20th-century Canadian historians]]

[[Category:Academic staff of McGill University faculty]]

[[Category:Academic staff of the University of Toronto faculty]]