Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Royal Geographical Society Founder’s Medal awarded to Tom Harrison, Explorer, Anthropologist, Archeologist and wartime Guerilla Leader

Royal Geographical Society, Founder’s Medal, by W. Wyon, obv. head of William IV right, rev. Britannia standing holding scroll and laurel wreath, with a globe and sextant at her feet (Tom Harrison, 1962), 54mm., gold, 98.37g., ref. Eimer 1229; B.H.M. 1467, minor scratch marks, nearly extremely fine £1500-2000

The R.G.S. Founder’s Medal, awarded annually since 1839, is given for the encouragement and promotion of geographical science and discovery.

Thomas Harnett (Tom) Harrison was born in Argentina in 1911, the son of Brigadier-General G. H. Harrison, C.M.G., D.S.O., of The End House, Otterbourne, Winchester. He was educated at Harrow (1925-30) and Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he studied Ecology. A true polymath, in the course of his life he was an ornithologist, anthropologist, explorer, mass-observer, journalist, broadcaster, soldier, ethnologist, museum curator, archaeologist, filmmaker, conservationist and author. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, he conducted ornithological and anthropological work in Lapland, the New Hebrides and Borneo, spending much of his life in the latter. He was involved in the British social research organisation ‘Mass-Observation’ (1937-47).

During the Second World War he was a Major involved with British Special Operations in the Far East. His local knowledge of Borneo and Sarawak being particularly valuable. He formulated the plan to recruit Dayak headhunters as guerillas against the occupying Japanese. By the end of the war, his army of ‘headhunters’ had ‘officially’ accounted for 1,500 killed or captured Japanese. On 25 March 1945, when attached to Z Force and in command of seven other agents, he was parachuted into Borneo, landing on the high plateau occupied by the Kelabit People. For his wartime services he was awarded the D.S.O. in 1946 (London Gazette 6 March 1947, ‘For gallant and distinguished services in the South West Pacific’). His recommendation states:

‘Major Harrisson (sic) and a Services Rec. Dept. party of seven white men were inserted by parachute into the Kelabit Plateau of Central Borneo on 25 Mar. 45 to establish an intelligence network into the Br???? area of Sarawak. Nothing was known at the time of the extent of the Jap penetration or the reception likely to be given by hostile tribes which inhabit the area. Major Harrisson successfully established his party on the ground and set up a base from which the whole of Sarawak (Kuching excepted) was later penetrated. Since the date of insertion until 15 Aug. 45, the activities of Maj. Harrisson in sequence have been: 1. Denial of essential supplies of food and labour from the rich Bawang Valley to the Japanese in Tarakan and Malenau areas. 2. Blockade of escape and reinforcement sorties from Tarakan to Brunei and Southern British North Borneo ... 3. Provision of valuable pre-invasion intelligence ... 4. Prevention of the southward movement of Jap forces from British Borneo to Sarawak ... 5. Construction of an emergency landing ground in the Bawang Valley ... 6. Establishment of control both military and administrative of an area of approx. 9,000 square miles stretching from Brunei to Malinau. 7. Infliction from Mar-Aug. of the following confirmed ??? .... killed 940 PW 33 (?) Auxiliaries killed 32 Auxiliaries captured 201. The above was achieved with a final strength of 37 white personnel and 800 guerillas. His losses were 14 native soldiers killed. Major Harrisson has shown great energy, imagination and powers of leadership with great aptitude for guerilla warfare. The success of Services Reconnaissance Dept. operations into Sarawak is undoubtedly due to his ability, courage and determination. On several occasions this officer personally led his guerilla bands into attacks which inflicted heavy casualties upon the enemy’.

After the war he was employed as Curator of the Sarawak Museum, 1947-66. In the early 1960’s Tom and his wife Barbara, in conjunction with others, began an Orangutan rehabilitation centre at Sepilok and he pioneered the conservation of Green Turtles. In 1962 he was awarded the prestigious R.G.S. Founder’s Medal, ‘for explorations in Central Borneo’. Tom Harrison died in a road accident in Thailand in 1976.

Very much a ‘larger than life’ character; he was described by A. Heinmann, a U.S. diplomat as ‘a romantic polymath, a drunken bully, an original thinking iconoclast, a dreadful husband and father, a fearless adventurer, a Richard Burton of his time ...’ British broadcaster, Sir David Attenborough, wrote of him, ‘Explorer, museum curator, guerilla fighter, pioneer sociologist, documentary filmmaker, anthropologist - Tom Harrison was all of these things. He was also arrogant, choleric, swashbuckling, often drunk and nearly always deliberately outrageous. In spite of these contradictions, he became a key figure in every enterprise he undertook’.

For further details see his biography, The Most Offending Soul Alive, by Judith M. Heimann; his wartime actions, World Within, A Borneo Story and the B.B.C. Four documentary Tom Harrison - The Barefoot Anthropologist - narrated by Sir David Attenborough. Harrison’s published works include, ‘Savage Civilisation (1937); Living Among Cannibals (1943) and World Within, A Borneo Story (1959). Sold with some copied research.