Wilfred Morrison, a 12-year-old soprano, performed before Canada’s Prime Minister and his wife in Ottawa on this date in 1909. After concerts at various churches in the national capital, he dropped by Laurier House after receiving a special invitation to sing for Sir Wilfrid and Lady Laurier. The Ottawa Citizen reported Morrison had “a wonderful voice naturally and has been carefully trained, giving him, good control and all the accomplishments of expression, etc., of older artists. However, it is the sweet childlike voice that thrills one.” The Citizen also noted that the singer was “warmly complimented” by Canada’s PM and his wife.
Arthur Milnes is an accomplished public historian and award-winning journalist. He was research assistant on The Rt. Hon. Brian Mulroney’s best-selling Memoirs and also served as a speechwriter to then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and as a Fellow of the Queen’s Centre for the Study of Democracy under the leadership of Tom Axworthy. A resident of Kingston, Ontario, Milnes serves as the in-house historian at the 175 year-old Frontenac Club Hotel.