Tillson Harrison

Who was Tillson Harrison?

Tillson Lever Harrison was a Canadian physician, army officer and adventurer. Moving to New York and enlisting in the United States Army at an early age, he later returned to Canada to attend the University of Toronto before practising as a physician in a number of dangerous positions, such as the Chief of Medical Staff to Pancho Villa and the doctor for the Chinese Labour Corps, a workforce of over 200,000 men. After World War I, he traveled throughout the Middle East, treating venereal disease and operating an X-ray facility in Lod, Israel.

After attempting to elope with one of his Middle East hospital patients, Harrison was deported to Canada, but managed to jump ship in Morocco and join the Free State Army. In the 1930s, he traveled through 15 countries and dependencies performing medical duties, and served as a ship's doctor on a liner that crossed the Indian Ocean during World War II . From 1946 until his death, he assisted in the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration in China, saving many lives.

By the end of his life, Harrison could speak six languages, had participated in seven wars, and was married to four women at the same time. His daughter Rosalind said that the character Indiana Jones was based on him. According to Rosalind, film producers George Lucas and Steven Spielberg contacted her after her father's death and conducted a series of interviews, during which she provided an account of his life.