Private Thomas Harrison

Thomas was born in July 1923, in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

He is described by his sisters as being an adventuress boy, strong willed with a mind of his own. He was also a little accident prone, once while helping to dig the garden, he managed to impale his big toe with the garden fork. As a school boy he saved his friend from drowning, an act his friend never forgot.

Thomas grew up around the mining villages of Barnsley, until his family settled in the village of Grimethorpe. He left school at the age of 14 and went to work down the local coal mine. Following another accident down the pit, his hand was scarred for life. This was what prompted him to join up perhaps earlier than he should have.

He initially joined the Green Howards in 1941. Thomas volunteered for Airborne service in 1944 and did Parachute Course 110, during early April 1944, at RAF Ringway near Manchester. His instructors comments; “Slow. Good Work. Has courage and is reliable. Above average”.

Joining 12th (Yorkshire) Parachute Battalion, which had been redesignated from 10th Battalion, Green Howards, Thomas served in Normandy following the D-Day landings. After returning to the UK, he was sent as part of the 6th Airborne deployment to the Ardennes, to halt the German counter-offensive in Winter 1944-5.

Private Harrison was Killed In Action during ‘Operation Varsity’, the Rhine Crossing, on 24 March 1945, aged 21 years old. He is now buried at the Reichswald C.W.G.C. Cemetery, 41. A. 4

He was a much loved son of Maria and John Harrison and during the past 60 odd years every Armistice Day his sisters have laid a poppy wreath on the war memorial, outside St Luke’s Church Grimethorpe, where his name is carved.