"Our Mickey": The Story of Private James O'Rourke, VC.MM (CEF), 1879-1957

Discusses the life of Michael James "Mickey" O'Rourke, miner, soldier, and labour activist. In 1917, he was awarded the Victoria Cross, Canada's highest military decoration at the time, for "conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during prolonged operations" while a member of the 7th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War I. After the war O'Rourke went to California, then returned to British Columbia where he played a prominent role in the 1935 Vancouver longshoremen's strike. Despite war-related chronic health problems, he received only a small pension as a disabled veteran. O'Rourke's later life was complicated by alcoholism. He died as an indigent at a Veterans' Affairs facility in Burnaby, BC in 1957.