WW1

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Harrison, Percy Herbert

Born 26^th August 1887 Hobart Tasmania to Patrick and Sophia Harrison (nee Skinner) and married to Mary Jane O’Neil.  Two of his brothers, William and Claude, also enlisted.

Percy joined the AIF on 21 July 1915. He and William signed up on the same day. Claude had now spent almost two months on Gallipoli having landed with the 12th Battalion on the first day. It seems logical that Percy delayed his enlistment whilst his wife May was pregnant so the War was almost a year old when he moved into Claremont Camp and was formally enlisted on 15 July. The medical officer recorded that he was 5 ft. 8 ins. tall and weighed 10 stone 7 lbs. Of dark complexion, brown eyes and brown-black hair. After a short training, he and Bill left for overseas on the Ballarat on 8 September 1915 with the 5th AIF Reinforcements.

As his brothers set off for the Middle East, unbeknown to them Claude had left Gallipoli. After a month in the trenches he fell ill with colitis and soon found himself on the Hospital Ship Valdivia bound for Mudros and then Malta. In St Andrews Hospital he was found to be so ill that he needed treatment in England. On 15 September he was transferred to the HS Devon Castle and eight days later was in the Military Hospital at Fulham in South London.

In mid January Percy got severe tonsillitis and was sent to the No.1 Auxiliary Hospital and a week or so later transferred to The Helouan Hotel Sanatorium at Al Hayat to recuperate.

Early in January 1916 Claude was well enough to return to the War. He disembarked from the Oriana in Alexandria on the 13th and rejoined his unit at Tel-el-Kebir. There he discovered that he had been promoted to Lance Corporal.

By the end of January Perce had recovered and returned to his unit but ten days later he is back in the casualty clearing station with influenza.        

Sometime between January and March the three brothers were reunited. Percy and Bill tried to get a transfer to the 12th Bn. so the three of them could serve together. This was the last time they saw Claude.

The attempt to join the 12th Bn came to nothing and on 15 March 1916 Bill and Percy were on the train to Alexandria with the 26th Battalion to join the BEF bound for France. The Battalion had been re-organized and equipped in Egypt and embarked on the Northrand on the next day.       

After the battle at Messines they moved to the Somme. The great battle on the Somme began on 1 July 1916 but the AIF were not involved until the third week with attack on Poziers. Claude, who was still with the 12th Battalion, was killed on the first day of the major assault on 23 July 1916. He had arrived in Belgium in April and went into the front line in late May. When the Somme campaign began they were at Outterstem and between the 12 and 20th July they marched in 5 stages to the Somme front near Albert. On 22 July they moved to the front in the northeast corner of the village of Poziers. The next evening Claude was killed as his Company positioned itself on the battle-line. In this battle the AIF Division lost 5285 men in 4 days.

Percy was quartered at Vignacourt near Amiens for a few days then moved up to Warloy, a few miles from Albert. Eleven days after Claude's death Percy and Bill joined the fighting for Poziers. In the fierce fighting his 4th Division suffered 6848 casualties. In fighting 1 mile of front at this little town 23,000 Australians died. Unaware that his brother had been killed at Poziers, Bill had been shot in the hand on 27 July and was sent to hospital in Wimereux, a small coastal town, and a few days later to Boulogne. Percy was twice wounded with shrapnel in his knee on 12 August and again a week later. Percy returned to duty on 13 August and Bill nine days later. During August the King reviewed them at Warloy. To recover from its losses the 26th Battalion withdrew to be reconstructed but the Army was very short of men and rest was brief. The Battalion was rushed back to Poziers to dig a jumping off trench behind Mouquet Farm under heavy German shellfire. Casualties were high, the Commanding Officer Col. Ferguson was killed. They then retired north to Steinworde in Belgium for several weeks’ rest before returning to the line in a sector of the Ypres salient. 

On the morning of 5 November the enemy came out in strong force to counter attack and about 15 of them managed to get in on our right flank in front of part of the line that was not connected. He got close enough to throw a few bombs but as we had a Lewis gun in position to sweep the open space we were able to drive him off. Our men at the ... rose to the occasion splendidly with their rifles and a good many of the enemy were left dead and wounded when they retired. Shortly after being beaten back about 10 Germans gave themselves up. Our casualties for the sector during the counter attack were about six. On the morning of the sixth the enemy showed himself again about 4 am but in small numbers and was easily dealt with. The Lewis guns did very good work.
The communication cable had been cut and only flag and runners were available to signal with.
Great difficulty was encountered evacuating the wounded. Only 8 stretchers and 16 bearers were available for the battalion. It is totally inadequate. (Bean reported that conditions were so bad that sixteen men instead of the usual four were needed to carry each stretcher.)
A total of 5 officers and 135 other ranks were killed and 105 other ranks are wounded and missing. All our Lewis Machine Guns were lost.”

Percy had one of the Lewis guns and was shot by a sniper during the attack. A comrade Private J.E.Manning of 16th Platoon in D Company was with him.
"I knew him. His name was Percy, but we called him Pat. He was on the L.G.T. (Lewis Gun). He was thin, fairly tall, dark. I saw him sniped at Flers on November 5 1916. I was in the same shell hole with him. He had been sniping with the LGT and was spotted and shot dead - clean through the forehead. We buried him and 5 others (whose names I do not know) in a shell hole out in 'no man's land' in front of Fritz's line at Fleurs. I believe the Pioneers put up one cross on the grave with all 5 names on it. but I didn't actually see the cross. His brother (William) was sent with a bad heart back to Australia. Before he left he asked me about Pat, but I didn't like to tell him owing to his heart, and so I said I supposed he was alright." 

Pte Percy Harrison is commemorated on the Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, France.  His brother Claude is also commemorated on this memorial.

 Photo and information courtesy of Anthony J. Harrison

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