Stanley Wakefield Harris

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established 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, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The Lions are a test side and most often select players who have already played for their national ...

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

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

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 (also known as "Western boxing" or "pugilism") is a combat sport in which two people, usually wearing protective gloves and other protective equipment such as hand wraps and mouthguards, throw punches at each other for a predetermined ...

champion and represented England in

polo Polo is a ball game played on horseback, a traditional field sport and one of the world's oldest known team sports. The game is played by two opposing teams with the objective of scoring using a long-handled wooden mallet to hit a small hard ...

, all in between serving in both the

First First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and rec ...

and

Second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

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 not to be confused with Bedford Girls' School, Bedford High School, Bedford Modern School, Old Bedford School in Bedford, Texas or Bedford Academy in Bedford, Nova Scotia.'' Bedford School is a public school (English indep ...

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 (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, 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, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

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, London, Blackheath in 1858, and is the fourth-oldest rugby club in continuous existence in the world, after Du ...

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 ( ga, Bóthar Lansdún, ) 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 ...

in the

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

match under the captaincy of Jenny Greenwood. He then also played against

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

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 England and Scotland played annually in the Six Nations Championship. Like the match itself (England–Scotland), the Calcutta Cup is the oldest trophy contested be ...

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 Olympic sport consisting of fencing (one-touch épée), freestyle swimming, equestrian show jumping, pistol shooting, and cross country running. The event is inspired by the traditional pentathlon held during the anci ...

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; af, ...

. 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, referred to as DHL Newlands for sponsorship reasons, 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 use the stadium as their ho ...

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

Springbok The springbok (''Antidorcas marsupialis'') is a medium-sized antelope found mainly in south and southwest Africa. The sole member of the genus ''Antidorcas'', this bovid was first described by the German zoologist Eberhard August Wilhelm v ...

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 racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

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, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imperial, Nebraska * Imperial, Pennsylvania * Imperial, Texas ...

, 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 came into being when created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of t ...

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

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

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 ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 mi ...

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 ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the 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 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 British male tennis players People 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