By now I am sure that most readers of this blog and the wargaming world in general - both historical and fantasy gamers alike - will be aware of the untimely death of Aly Morrison.
Aly was a cornerstone of the pioneering days of Games Workshop and had only recently retired after umpteen years ‘on the firm’. I do not know the specifics of his career but suspect a trawl through the net or Facebook will fill in the pertinent details of his life and achievements.
My first dealings with him on a personal level went back to around 2021, when I was disposing of elements of the Napoleonic part of the collection of Eric Knowles. I remember thinking at the time “Aly Morrison? I know that name”. Curiosity got the better of me and after several parcels had been sent to him I asked for his phone number for a chat.
It was the beginning of a long distance relationship of phone calls, text message and emails - along with comments on our respective blogs. He was a wonderful chap to talk to - funny, knowledgable and with the unique capacity to make you feel that you that he was fully engaged in whatever you were wittering on about. He often joked about my ‘Wargaming Butterfly’ - a trait he happily embraced, with a vast range of subjects as potential Wargame projects at various stages of progress (or lack of). He was incredibly encouraging and enthusiastic about the Portable Ironclads Wargames - promoting him to follow another butterfly to Tumbling Dice for a selection of 1:2400th scale ironclads - and gave me many modelling tips during my various builds.
He would often joke about his dice rolling luck - usually bad - and would enthusiastically mention any occasional successes he enjoyed.
His historical gaming tastes were many and varied and his knowledge of figure ranges and designers seemed to be almost encyclopaedic - his own invaluable contributions to the hobby he would talk about if prompted but for the most part he was far more engaged in the here and now.
We swapped photos of projects ongoing and ideas for new ones and I recall that he was especially pleased with a selection of naval books that had come into his possession. He even wanted to try at some point to build some models in a similar style to my own which I took as being very high praise indeed.
I had planned to meet him in person for the first time at the Other Partizan a few weeks ago but we missed one another. I mentioned in my Other Partizan post that unless you had nailed down a time and place to meet someone the chance of casually bumping into them was next to nil due to the amount of people there. A schoolboy error on my part and it proved to be a depressingly poignant one.
I have, as a result of this error, learned a painful and valuable lesson.
We messaged shortly after the Other Partizan and once again the jokes flew about butterflies - both his and mine - although he did mention that he had only stayed briefly. I knew he was ill as he had touched on it a couple of times during our calls but never once did he complain about his situation although I suspect he may have been putting on a brave face on occasion - at least that is how I read it.
I do not profess to have known Aly in great detail but the short time that I did was a wonderful experience. His humour, enthusiasm, artistic skill, knowledge and his engaging personality will be missed, not only by me but also by his legions of fans and admirers from across the globe.
My deep and sincere condolences go out to his family and many, many friends and for sure, the wargaming world is a much poorer place for his passing.
A wise man once said “What we do in life echoes in eternity’ - Aly’s legacy will do just that.
RIP Aly Morrison.
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