Stanley Wakefield Harris

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(13 December 1894 – 3 October 1973) was an early twentieth century all-round sportsman regarded as one of the greatest all-rounders to have played for the

British and Irish Lions The British & Irish Lions is a rugby union team selected from players eligible for the national teams of England national rugby union team, England, Ireland national rugby union team, Ireland, Scotland national rugby union team, Scotland, and ...

.Cotton, p82 As a rugby union international, he represented

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

in 1920, and the British Lions in 1924. He also turned down a place in the Great Britain Olympic squad in 1920, became a South African

boxing Boxing is a combat sport and martial art. Taking place in a boxing ring, it involves two people – usually wearing protective equipment, such as boxing glove, protective gloves, hand wraps, and mouthguards – throwing Punch (combat), punch ...

champion and represented England in

polo Polo is a stick and ball game that is played on horseback as a traditional field sport. It is one of the world's oldest known team sports, having been adopted in the Western world from the game of Chovgan (), which originated in ancient ...

, all in between serving in both the

First First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and

Second The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of U ...

World Wars.Richard Bath, ''The British & Irish Lions Miscellany'', p. 30, 2008, (Vision Sports Publishing:London)

Early life

Stan Harris was born on 13 December 1894 in Somerset East. He attended

Bedford School Bedford School is a 7–18 Single-sex education, boys Public school (United Kingdom), public school in the county town of Bedford in England. Founded in 1552, it is the oldest of four independent schools in Bedford run by the Harpur Trust. Bed ...

where he excelled at rugby union.

Sporting career

Stanley Harris has been described as a ''" Boy’s Own"'' hero for his sporting prowess.Official RFU website, ''100 years of Twickenham - the 1920s'', retrieved 3 March 2010
/ref> After his service in

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, in which he was wounded, he spent some time convalescing, but his boredom at this predicament led him to take up ballroom dancing. A year later he reached the finals of the World Ballroom dancing championship, in which he won the waltz section. After being sufficiently healed, he returned to his school boy passion of

rugby union Rugby union football, commonly known simply as rugby union in English-speaking countries and rugby 15/XV in non-English-speaking world, Anglophone Europe, or often just rugby, is a Contact sport#Terminology, close-contact team sport that orig ...

and became the leading try-scorer for

Blackheath F.C. Blackheath Football Club is a rugby union club based in Well Hall, Eltham, in south-east London. The club was founded in Blackheath in 1858 and is the oldest open rugby club in continuous existence in the world. The Blackheath club also assi ...

and also played for East Midlands RFC. Having played in the trial match in December 1919 on the victorious side where The South beat England, he made his international debut on 14 February 1920 at

Lansdowne Road Lansdowne Road Stadium (, ) was a stadium in Dublin owned by the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) that was primarily used for rugby union and association football matches. The stadium was demolished in 2007 to make way for the Aviva Stadium on ...

in the

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

match under the captaincy of

Jenny Greenwood John Eric Greenwood (known as Jenny Greenwood) was a rugby union international who represented England from 1912 to 1920. He also captained his country. During what would have been the prime of his playing career he fought in the First World Wa ...

. He then also played against

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

that season, scoring a try in that second match winning the

Calcutta Cup The Calcutta Cup is the trophy awarded to the winner of the rugby match between teams of England and Scotland played annually in the Six Nations Championship. Like the match itself (England–Scotland), the Calcutta Cup is the oldest trophy con ...

and helping England secure a joint Five Nations championship (along with Scotland and Wales). In 1920, he also turned down a place in the Great Britain Olympic

modern pentathlon The modern pentathlon is an Summer Olympics, Olympic multisport that consists of five events: fencing (one-touch épée followed by direct elimination), freestyle swimming, obstacle course racing, Laser pistol (sport), laser pistol shooting, and ...

team in 1920 to play rugby. He emigrated to South Africa soon afterwards and played for the Johannesburg Pirates club, as well as

Transvaal Transvaal is a historical geographic term associated with land north of (''i.e.'', beyond) the Vaal River in South Africa. A number of states and administrative divisions have carried the name ''Transvaal''. * South African Republic (1856–1902; ...

. In 1921 he became the South African light-heavyweight boxing champion. In 1924, when the British Lions toured South Africa, he was called up by the team and played two Tests. Originally chosen as a replacement wing he then took over as fullback after a spate of injuries to the touring party. He played his final match for the British Lions on 20 Sep 1924 at

Newlands Stadium The Newlands Stadium is located in Cape Town, South Africa. The stadium has a capacity of 51,900 people, but is not an all-seater venue. Various sports teams used the stadium as their home base, including: * Stormers in Super Rugby * Wester ...

and scored a try in that final match that was rated as the best of the series. The

Springbok The springbok or springbuck (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is an antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus (biology), genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first Species description, described by the Germa ...

captain, Pierre Albertyn, rated Harris as the pick of the Lions backs. Harris then remained in South Africa until the beginning of the Second World War and won Springbok colours both in

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

and

Military career

Harris served in two world wars. He began his service as a trooper in the

Imperial Light Horse Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor/empress, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Impe ...

, in South West Africa from 1914 to 1915. He was commissioned in the

Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery (RFA) of the British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It was created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of the regiment, the ...

in 1915 and fought in France, and was severely wounded during the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme (; ), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and the French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place between 1 July and 18 Nove ...

in 1916. He returned to active duty to serve in both Flanders and North Russia. In between wars he was a member of the Army Sports Control Board 1935-1939 and took up service again in 1939. Harris was second-in-command of the 148th (Bedfordshire Yeomanry) Field Artillery Regiment sent to help defend Singapore in January 1942. He became a prisoner of war of the Japanese in Singapore and

Siam Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

for the next 3½ years. Harris was also promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel and commanding officer of the Bedfordshire Yeomanry in captivity when the Regiment's previous CO was killed trying to escape from Singapore. In April 1943 Harris was appointed senior officer in command of F Force a forced labour party of 7000 prisoners, with Lieutenant Colonel Dillon leader of the British and Lieutenant Colonel Kappe Leader of the Australians. These men were sent by rail to Non Pluduc during the latter part of April 1943. They were to suffer among the highest casualties of any POW group. Due to remaining under the control of the Malay Command, rather than the Thai-Burma Command, they suffered in the distribution of supplies. They were also forced marched for roughly 300 kilometres to their work area near the Burma border. To compound already dreadful conditions was a cholera epidemic, which struck during the wet season. Of the 3336 British in F Force 2037 of them died, whilst the Australians lost 1060 men. On many occasions Harris was known to have stood up for his men, on one occasion preventing 700 of his wounded soldiers being simply left in the jungle outside the camp.Children and Families of the Far East Prisoners of War Official site, ''A REPORT OF "F" FORCE IN THAILAND APRIL - DECEMBER 1943''
/ref>

Later life

Harris was awarded the

in 1946. He married Leila Mary Roberts in Cape Town and lived in Kenilworth with her children, Peter Graham Roberts, Sally Jane Roberts and Mark Archer Roberts. He died in 1973 at

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

References

Print references

* Cotton, Fran (Ed.) (1984) ''The Book of Rugby Disasters & Bizarre Records'' (Compiled by Chris Rhys. London. Century Publishing. ) * Havers, Robin Paul Whittick, ''Reassessing the Japanese prisoner of war experience: the Changi POW camp, Singapore, 1942-5'', Routledge, 2003, , * Kratoska, Paul H., ''The Thailand-Burma Railway, 1942-1946: Documents and Selected Writings'', ,

Footnotes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harris, Stan 1894 births 1973 deaths English rugby union players England international rugby union players Rugby union wings British & Irish Lions rugby union players from England English male tennis players British male tennis players English male boxers English polo players People educated at Bedford School World War II prisoners of war held by Japan Blackheath F.C. players South African male boxers South African male water polo players Light-heavyweight boxers Bedfordshire Yeomanry officers Sportspeople from Somerset East South African military personnel of World War I British Army personnel of World War I Royal Field Artillery officers British Army personnel of World War II British World War II prisoners of war 20th-century English sportsmen Commanders_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire