 Book Reviews
with Robin Osborne
The Man Who Died Twice
By Peter Thompson & Robert Macklin
Allen & Unwin $32.95
 George Morrison, explorer, doctor, journalist and adviser to the British and Chinese governments, was the subject of a fine biography (Cyril Pearl's Morrison of Peking) and the author of a superb memoir, An Australian in China, yet he remains little known to the public.
'I returned from Shanghai to Japan. It was my intention to go up the Yangtse River as far as Chungking, and then, dressed as a Chinese, to cross quietly over Western China,' begins his own work. 'The ensuing narrative will tell you how easily and pleasantly this journey, which a few years ago would have been regarded as a formidable undertaking, can now be done.'
It was only the latest in a series of extraordinary trips that began not long out of Geelong College: Morrison walked from Melbourne to Adelaide, canoed the Murray, trod (and survived) in the footsteps of Burke and Wills from Normanton in the Gulf country to Melbourne, and embarked on what became an unsuccessful attempt to cross New Guinea.
Speared in the face and stomach by a warrior, he returned to Melbourne, dejected by failure and in agony until one spear point was extracted through his right nostril by a leading surgeon.
In 1884, at the age of 22, he sailed for London where a 3-inch long spearhead was cut from his abdomen. Then, he enrolled at Edinburgh University to undertake medical studies.
Even as a doctor, Morrison would often be poor: he had only $60 when he returned to London in 1895 with what became a popular account of his Chinese journey. It prompted an invitation for the 'strikingly handsome, tall and well built... magnificent specimen of Australian manhood' (said The History of The Times) to meet the chief of the famous newspaper.
"I have read your book," he was told. "Would you care to go to Peking as our correspondent?"
Morrison established himself in the capital during the chaotic, bloody transition from monarchy to republic, including the siege of the foreign legations, the famous '55 days in Peking'.
He was wounded and believed to have died, news that provoked a glowing obituary in The Times and widespread Australian sorrow for the late 'Morrison of Peking'.
In fact he lived to die another day, married, famous, but not old - Morrison was 58 and regretted not expiring 'in Peking amongst the Chinese who have treated me with such consideration for so many years.'
- Thanks to Book Warehouse, Keen Street, Lismore for supporting this column.
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