Researching James Morrow

Morrow was born to William Morrow and Nancy Booth, an Irish family in Mille-Isles, Canada East (now Quebec). His father was a member of the 11th Argenteuil Rangers during the Fenian raids of 1866. Morrow was educated at common school, and worked as a farmer. He moved to Manitoba in 1879, and served as councillor and reeve of the Rural Municipality of Louise for ten years. Morrow married Mary A. McDougall in 1883. In religion, he was a Presbyterian.

He was first elected to the Manitoba legislature in a by-election held in the constituency of Manitou on October 31, 1911, after incumbent member Robert Rogers resigned to run for the House of Commons of Canada. Morrow was elected without opposition, and served as a backbench supporter of Rodmond Roblin's government. He was re-elected by seventy votes over Liberal I.H. Davidson in the 1914 provincial election.

The Roblin administration was forced to resign in 1915, after a report commissioned by the Lieutenant Governor found the government guilty of corruption in the tendering of contracts for new legislative buildings. A new election was called, which the Liberals won in a landslide. Morrow was not a candidate for re-election.

He died at the Grace Hospital in Winnipeg.

Morrow grew up in Belfast, and studied at the Belfast Technical School. He became active in the Northern Ireland Labour Party and served as its chairman in 1949/50. He worked as an organiser for the Amalgamated Engineering Union, and in 1970 he served as President of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

Morrow contested Belfast South in the 1945 UK general election, taking 17.5% of the vote, then in Belfast North, at the 1951 general election, where he took 39.3%. He came closest to election in Belfast Duncairn at the 1945 Northern Ireland general election, taking 45.5% of the vote, but his share dropped to 16.9% in 1949, and recovered only slightly at a by-election held later in the year.