Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A post-Second World War O.B.E. group of ten awarded to Chaplain H. M. Harris, Royal New Zealand Navy, late Royal Naval Reserve and Royal Australian Navy

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, O.B.E. (Civil) Officer’s 2nd type breast badge, silver-gilt; 1914-15 Star (Sub. Lieut., R.N.R.); British War and Victory Medals (Lieut., R.N.R.); 1939-45 Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals; Australia Service Medal, these five officially impressed, ‘H. M. Harris, R.N.R.’; Royal Naval Reserve Decoration, G.VI.R., 1st issue, reverse officially dated ‘1942’, mounted as worn; together with a mounted set of ten miniature dress medals, full-size medals with light contact marks, very fine and better (20) £600-700

Harold Mayo Harris was born in Begelly, Wales on 23 February 1894, son of the Rev. G. Harris. Educated at Crowthorne Towers, Berkshire and H.M.S. Worcester, 1907-10. Officer with the New Zealand Shipping Company, 1910-22. Served as an officer in the Royal Naval Reserve during the Great War. He joined the armed auxiliary cruiser H.M.S. Victorian in July 1914. In June 1915 his ship apprehended the Pass of Balmaha, of the then neutral U.S.A. with a cargo of cotton, bound for Archangel. Harris was put on board the Pass of Balmaha as Commander of a prize crew of six men, with orders to sail her to Kirkwall in the Orkneys. En-Route, on 3 August 1915, the Pass of Balmaha was captured by the German submarine U-36 and was sent with a prize crew to Cuxhaven. There, the ship was refitted as a commerce raider, renamed the Seeadler, and under the command of Graf Felix von Luckner, the ship was to cause havoc to allied maritime commerce, her captain being referred to variously as ‘The Sea Devil’ or ‘The Emperor’s Pirate’, such was the success of his cruise. As for Harris, he spent the rest of the war as a prisoner-of-war.

Returning to the Merchant Navy after the war, Harris was Second Officer of the Wiltshire when she was ran aground and was wrecked on the Great Barrier Reef, 31 May 1922. During 1923 Harris was employed by the Canterbury Steamship Company, after which he joined the Wanganui Harbour Board where he remained until 1927. In that year he was ordained at Wellington and was Curate at St. Peter’s. In 1930 he was appointed Vicar of Taihape and in 1934 Rector of Suva Cath, Fiji. He was then appointed Archdeacon of Fiji and Vicar-General of Ploynesia. On loan to the Royal Australian Navy, 1941-46. Served as Lieutenant-Commander i/c corvettes, Eastern Fleet and Mediterranean, 1942; promoted to Commander in 1942. Co-ordinating Officer Flinders Naval Depot in 1944. Appointed Chaplain of R.N.Z.N. Tamaki in 1946; then Senior Chaplain of the R.N.Z.N. in 1948. In the Navy he was affectionately known as the ‘Mad Bishop’. For his services as Chaplain to the R.N.Z.N., Harris was awarded the O.B.E. in 1949. Retiring from the service in 1954, he was appointed Vicar of Clevedon in 1954 and Vicar of Devonport in 1958. As Archdeacon of Hauraki, he retired in 1961; and granted an ‘Emeritus’ title in 1964. In later life, his home address was at Thorpe Cottage, North Road, Clevedon, New Zealand.

With a booklet Our Parish, A History of the Parish of the Holy Trinity Devonport New Zealand 1856-1990 and with a quantity of copied research, including service papers and copied photograph of the recipient.