“Red” Harrison dies
South Shields born journalist dies in Sydney
Red Harrison, a former BBC journalist, has died at the age of 75 in a hospital in Sydney after a long illness. Arthur Leslie Harrison was born in South Shields in north-east England and moved to Australia as teenager.
Known as Red on account of his flame-coloured hair, he worked as a jackaroo on a Queensland cattle station.
This was followed by a stint in Papua New Guinea before he drifted into journalism.
He was a successful newspaper editor in Perth and Sydney and went on to become one of Australia’s most recognisable radio personalities.
Red Harrison had one of the most distinctive voices in the business.
Friends have described his deep tones as “well lived in”.
He presented the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s flagship radio news programme AM between 1981 and 1986. For years he was the voice of the BBC in the Antipodes. He was a talented pianist and chess player, who also found time to indulge his passion for flying and military history.
I don’t suppose there are many of my readers old enough to know or remember Harrison or his life in South Shields, although some of my present Australian friends will be enriched to know that a South Shields man brought some colour to their lives down under. “Red” was a familiar voice to them and was heard occasionally on BBC Radio over here, here’s a small audio clip containing his voice in this announcement from his colleagues at ABC.
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Sydney Morning Herald – July 9, 2008
A man of parts – and well-chosen words
Red Harrison, 1932-2008
RED HARRISON loved the spoken and written word, and could become incandescent (an impressive sight in one with a rubicund complexion) when the language was maltreated by announcers or reporters. He loved stories, those he could place in a newspaper or speak about on radio, and personal ones he could tell in a pub or over lunch at his home, fuelled by red wine or Scotch.
He was what used to be called a man of parts. Born in South Shields, on Tyneside, he had his Geordie accent hammered out of him at an English public school, which would be called private here, and developed the clipped and resonant tones that helped make him a fine broadcaster for the ABC and BBC. He became a newspaper editor in Aus-tralia, and a pilot. Sometimes he would fly his own light aircraft from his home at Camden to Mascot and take a taxi to work in Surry Hills.
Harrison, who has died at 75, was named Arthur Leslie by his parents, William Harrison, a chief steward in the merchant marine, and his wife, Alexandra. He became Red at school, not because of his complexion, as often thought, but because of his hair. He boarded at the Royal Merchant Navy School. William Harrison was posted missing after Singapore fell to the Japanese in World War II but became a prisoner of war in Changi. After the war, the Harrisons, with Arthur, then 15, and his brother, Walter, migrated to Australia.
Red worked with his father on oil rigs in Papua New Guinea but was sent home after his mother discovered he had lied about his age.
His media career began with a cadetship at the ABC, before he joined the Gympie Times. He then worked as a jackaroo near Cloncurry in Queensland and as a journalist in Townsville, then Tasmania.
He married Mary “Mickey” Wall, in Brisbane in 1952. They had four children in four years but Harrison left his family to join Frank Packer’s suburban newspaper group in Sydney. Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited hired him and sent him to Perth to edit The Sunday Times.
He had a zest for life and an engaging sense of humour but his temperament could be explosive. After a row in Perth, he returned to Sydney, working in senior positions at The Australian and The Daily Mirror and editing The Sunday Telegraph.
In 1971 he married Pamela Macarthur-Onslow, a descendent of John Macarthur, whose family played the leading part in establishing Australia’s merino sheep industry.
Harrison could play the piano and chess, sail yachts and fly. He towed gliders from the aerodrome near their home on the Macarthur estate. He bought an old Beechcraft 18 and flew it from Tennessee via Iceland, Britain, Europe and Asia to Australia.
Harrison joined AM, ABC Radio’s current affairs program, as a presenter-reporter in 1981 and the BBC world service in 1986. He reported on the Azaria Chamberlain case, royal tours, the controversial Springbok rugby tour, the Spycatcher case and Brigadier Siteveni Rabuka’s 1987 coup in Fiji. The Fijians detained many journalists covering the coup and beat some, including Harrison, but he continued to broadcast. Eloquent essays on Australia for the BBC displayed his love of anecdote and the range, wit and precise use of language. The Queen told him at a reception at Admiralty House that her day began with the BBC World Service.
To greet one BBC dignitary he flew to Mascot, taking an amply proportioned friend. To his dismay, the dignitary’s dimensions were even larger. The plane, grossly overladen, took an alarmingly long time to take off but made it back to Camden.
After the BBC dispensed with his services, he reviewed books, particularly of military history.
A heavy smoker, Red Harrison died of emphysema. He is survived by Pamela, whom he called Pammy, his first wife Mary, their children, Alexandra, Michael, Kathleen and Robert, five grandchildren and a great-grandson.
Barry Oakley and Tony Stephens
Robert
July 18, 2008 at 11:59 am
Just a little information about Red (Arthur Leslie) Harrison, born 18 August 1932. His father was Purser on board ss Empire Dawn, reported killed in enemy action but later known to be a prisoner of war. Arthur was admitted to the Royal Merchant Navy School, Bearwood in Berkshire, in June 1943, together with his younger brother Walter (born 22 August 1934). These two fellows were amongst many from Tyneside who went to RMNS. How do I know? I too was a pupil at the school (between 1945 and 1953) and am currently organising a reunion of ‘Old Royals’ to be held in South Shields on 30th August – quite a few of Red Harrison’s contempories will be attending.
Sylvia R Lambert (nee King)
Alumni Correspondent for the Old Royals Association (ex-pupils of Royal Merchant Navy School, now known as Bearwood College)
Sylvia R. Lambert
August 9, 2008 at 10:22 am