last journey shanghai kaifeng in train zhangqiu truck
on december 4, 1946, harrison set out shanghai approximately 50 tonnes of supplies. on train journey, accompanied russian unrra worker , chinese welfare representatives. due repeated kuomintang inspections, train journey suffered delays. first such delay occurred @ nanjing , lasted 4 days; second such delay, @ xuzhou, of equal duration. @ 1 station, medical supplies unhooked train s engine car , left on bleak plain. 2 unrra workers did not have clean water drink , forced boil ditch water polluted human waste. add dire situation, harrison s blanket , shoes stolen, , due cold, began suffer frostbite. 2 weeks after harrison left shanghai, train permitted move again, there problems still ahead. @ each 1 of 20 stations en route kaifeng, train delayed 3 hours. upon arrival @ kaifeng, journey had completed truck , ox cart. after completing 1 delivery, returned kaifeng pick second load, not continue past zhangqiu branch of receiving hospital. harrison died of exposure on january 10, 1947, near kaifeng in china, aged 66.
by end of life, tillson harrison speak no less 6 different languages, had participated in 7 wars and, although not discovered several years after death, married 4 women @ same time.
while virtually unknown in canada, harrison honored in china. statue in likeness stands tall in shanghai, burial site @ anglican compound in kaifeng home dr. tillson harrison memorial school, , harrison international peace hospital in hengshui treats approximately 800 outpatients every day. town of tillsonburg, ontario (named harrison s great-grandfather) maintains lasting relationship hospital, renamed such previous name of handan international peace hospital in 1947. in 1988, prime minister of canada, brian mulroney, sent commemorative letter chinese ambassador mark centenary of harrison s birth. @ time not made clear harrison had falsified age when enlisting in unrra, , celebrations took place 7 years after actual centenary. same year, harrison s remains re-interred in large tomb in public ceremony, many canadians invited attend.
according harrison s daughter, rosalind, several decades after father s death, film producers george lucas , steven spielberg contacted her, , in series of interviews, rosalind provided account of father s illustrious life. this, claims, became inspiration highly successful indiana jones film series. in recent times, harrison subject of five-part cbc radio morningside dramatization of life, written antanas sileika.
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