Heather Killen
Published on October 29, 2013

Noel Harrison may always be remembered in Annapolis as the star of Mount Hanley who put the Middleton Fire Department on the map.

Harrison died last week at the age of 79, following a heart attack after a performance in Devon.

The son of actor Rex Harrison, by the time he and his family moved to Mount Hanley in the 1970s, he’d been an Olympic skier, a musician, actor, and notable TV personality who starred in The Girl From U.N.C.L.E. and made appearances on The Tonight Show, Ed Sullivan, and The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

While his best-known song, The Windmills of Your Mind, won an Oscar as the theme song for the 1968 movie The Thomas Crown Affair, in Annapolis Harrison is best known for his timeless ditty that honoured the Middleton Fire Brigade for coming to his rescue one bitterly cold morning.



The Fire

Harrison and his family lived here for approximately 10 years, between the 1970s and early 1980s. John Thompson, of the Middleton fire department, said he remembers the call to go up over the mountain on the snowy January day.

“It happened around 8, or 8:30 a.m., it was very exciting,” Thompson said. “We knew about him and knew he was a popular person. When we got there, he was very upset, he was afraid he was going to lose his house.”

The old farmhouse Harrison and his family lived in was burning after a fire likely started somehow in the woodstove. Thompson remembers that Harrison told them that he was still in bed when the fire broke out.

“I remember him telling us that smoke began coming up through the floor,” said Thompson. Harrison, his wife, and children escaped unharmed, but the old farmhouse was heavily damaged especially in the back portion.



Up The Mountain

Bruce Eisner, who was then a captain in the Middleton Fire Department, said he and John Thompson were driving one of three trucks that were dispatched from Middleton in the mutual aid call and the drive up the mountain was slick.

They drove the Number Four truck until they arrived at the property next to the Harrison home.

“Just past the house there was a large pond,” he said. “We broke through the ice and set up a pump to get water just as the pumper truck was running out. It was just in time that we were able to save the house.”

Eisner still recalls the bitter wind blowing in that morning and how they managed to save the house, even though it was badly damaged by smoke and water. Members of both the Nictaux and Middleton fire departments were called to fight the fire.

Eisner said that Harrison later composed the song for the fire department while he was on a plane flying from Toronto to Halifax. The Middleton Fire Department invited him to their annual banquet in the spring, where he first performed the song that would be later premiered on his CBC show Take Time.



Neighbours

Marilyn Jones, of Cottage Cove, was Harrison’s neighbour when he lived in Mount Hanley. She says that she remembers spending a lot of time at the Harrison home while her children were growing up.

“We loved him, Maggie and the kids, we had a ball together,” she said. “Some of the best times I remember were spent with them.”

Jones says the Harrisons were a very sociable couple and often hosted kitchen parties as well as children’s birthday parties. Neighbours were always welcome to drop in. While they were aware that he was Rex Harrison’s son, they didn’t think much about it.

“We miss him, it’s been 30 years,” she said. “I knew him to be a true musician, a good father, a good husband, and a very good neighour. I never heard him swear, or criticize anyone. He never turned anyone away.”

She added that he and his family lived in the area about 10 years and while he seemed happy here, it would have been hard to sustain the type of lifestyle he was accustomed to in England. Harrison returned to the UK in the 1990s.

His song honouring the Middleton Fire Brigade was later released and used as a fundraiser for the Mount Hanley School House Museum.

Harrison was married three times and is survived by his wife and several children and grandchildren.

http://www.annapoliscountyspectator.ca/ ... Harrison/1