Michael James “Mickey” O’Rourke (1878 – 1957)

Mickey O’Rourke was born in Limerick, Ireland.¹⁾ O’Rourke came to the Klondike from British Columbia in 1897 and went from there to the Boer War in 1899. He went overseas during the First World War with the first Canadian contingent and became the most decorated man in the Canadian Army with the Military Cross, the Victoria Cross, the DMC and the French Croix de Guerre.²⁾ After the war, O’Rourke lived in Vancouver on a meagre disability pension and casual work on the docks.³⁾