The Collection of Medals to the Medical Services formed by Colonel D.G.B. Riddick

A Second World War M.B.E. group of five awarded to Lieutenant-Colonel G. F. Harrison, Royal Army Medical Corps, rewarded for his service as a prisoner-of-war of the Japanese in Hong Kong

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, M.B.E. (Military) Member’s 2nd type breast badge, silver; India General Service 1908-35, 2 clasps, Burma 1930-32, Mohmand 1933 (Lt., R.A.M.C.); 1939-45 Star; Pacific Star; War Medal 1939-45, first with some contact marks, very fine and better (5) £450-500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Medical Services formed by Colonel D.G.B. Riddick.

View
Collection

M.B.E. London Gazette 6 June 1946. ‘... in recognition of gallant and distinguished services while prisoners of war’.

Gerald Fairland Harrison was born in Siakot, India on 4 January 1906. He received his medical education at St. Thomas’s Hospital and graduated with the London M.B., B.S. in 1929. In 1930 he won the Herbert Prize and in 1937 the Leishman Prize. He joined the R.A.M.C. as a Lieutenant soon after qualifying and was promoted to Captain in 1932 and Major in 1939. He served in India, 1930-35 and then in Hong Kong, 1938-41. He was taken prisoner by the Japanese with the fall of Hong Kong in December 1941. After the fall he continued to work as a doctor with allied sick and wounded at the Bowen Road Military Hospital and was increasingly concerned with the nutritional deficiency of his patients. Harrison established a system of contact with Dr Selwyn-Clarke, who as Principal Medical Officer of the Government of Hong Kong, had been allowed a measure of liberty by the Japanese in order to help control the public health of the Chinese population. Through the good offices of Mrs Selwyn-Clarke and her Hong Kong Chinese helpers led by Miss Helen Ho, supplies of food and drugs were smuggled to the hospital at great danger to all concerned. With these extra supplies, many survived and recovered, who would otherwise have died in the hospital. For his dedicated service to the wounded and sick whilst a prisoner of war, Harrison was awarded the M.B.E. and in June 1946 he attained the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Through close contact with the sick Harrison contracted pulmonary tuberculosis and was placed on Retired Pay through ill-health on 30 May 1949. Appointed a M.R.C.P. London in 1947; Harrison was also the recipient of a Fellow of the Royal Society Medal. He died on 1 June 1963. Sold with copied P.O.W. questionnaire, obituary and other research. In his P.O.W. questionnaire he states he was held at St. Alberts Convent (Hospital), 10 December 1941-February 1942; Bowen Road Hospital, February 1942-April 1945, and the Central British School (Hospital), April 1945-end. At the end of the form he brings to notice Mrs H. Selwyn-Clarke ‘till April 1942 (when she was interned)’ and Miss Helen Ho, ‘from the begining till our release’ who ‘did magnificent work purchasing & transporting to us, on parcel drugs, food which by private arrangement between us, went to the patients. The latter work especially deserves recognition undoubtedly’.