Blocked

                   MARRIAGE PLACE:St George the Martyr Church, Southwark, London, England

Historical and research information included in notes.



Arthur Harris, my father, was born in Southwark, London (the "Eastend") on 20th April, 1904.  He attended The Charles Dickens School in W.Southwark and on 19th April 1918 received the following letter:-

"Arthur Harris, who will be fourteen years of age tomorow, is leaving the above School in the Top Class.

He has always been a punctual, regular, and persevering boy, showing great attention to his lessons and always trying his hardest in his work.

I have no doubt but that he will turn out to be a good workman for any master.  (Signed) Geo. Harwood, Head Master."

I have the original letter.

After leaving school he began an Apprenticeship as a Linotype Operator with The Amalgamated Press Limited in Fleet Street, London where, in 1924 he was left the sum of Twenty Three Pounds Five Shillings by his employer The Right Honorable Alfred Charles William Viscount Northcliffe, in his Will.  (I have this paperwork also).  He married Ellen Bayliss on 12 April 1925 at St George the Martyr Church, Borough High Street, Southwark.    They lived in Rooks Hill Road Southwark.

In 1932 the family left London and moved to Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire (just 20 miles north of London) to get away from the bombings and lived at 8 Wheatley Road, Welwyn Garden City.  Dad communted by train to London daily.  Because he was then earning very good money , quite a few of the family members on both sides would spend extended periods staying in WGC with Mum and Dad to get away from London's devastation during the War.   He worked in Fleet Street for the Daily Express Newspaper until he left in November 1949 when Mum, Dad, Richard, John, Ted and Cheryl sailed to Australia on the SS Orcades which arrived in Melbourne in January 1950.

His next job was as a Sharefarmer on a dairy farm in Bega, NSW, Australia and then finally with the Albury City Council as a Truckdriver until his retirement in 1969.  He and Mum then had a two year trip around Australia, with a caravan and a utility.  They drove across the Nullabor Plain which was not sealed then, to Perth, along the West Australian coast to Darwin then down to Alice Springs, across to Queensland and down the NSW coast home.    Dad never returned to England, Mum did once, and he always said that the trip around Australia was one of the highlights of his life.

After Mum passed away in 1989 he stayed living at 237 Kiewa Street, Albury  with his son Richard but as he began to have heart problems (he had a pacemaker inserted) we insisted on 24 hour care by the family - this we did by having Dad sleep at John's home and then John's wife Ann would drive him down to 237 Kiewa Street after breakfast where Richard would look after him during the day until John picked him up again at 4.00 p.m. after work.  Dennis and I would then collect Dad on a Friday afternoon and take him home with us for the weekend and return him to John's on Sunday night.  Dad, of course, wasnt impressed with all of this but it was the only way to keep him out of a nursing home.  He was always bright and cheerful, never irritable,never complained, and had all of his faculties until his death in 1992.  He was definitely the best father a person could have and we all miss him terribly.