In the Sept 2022 newsletter I wrote about William Kennington, a first cousin 4x removed of my husband’s. William kept a journal of his departure and voyage to NZ in 1858. He settled near Blenheim. They are both descendants of William Harrison (1781—1825) and Mary Perrin Harrison (1784—1871) of Lincolnshire. When I wrote that article, I didn’t realize there was another Harrison descendant who came to NZ and is particularly relevant to this month’s newsletter. William and Mary Harrison had 12 children, and this one is descended from their second child:
Henry Harrison (1806, Dunholme—after 1881) married his first cousin Mary Faith Harrison in Aug 1831. He was a butcher and grocer in Bardney. They had 7 children, but only one concerns us here:
Thomas Henry Harrison (1835, Bardney—1896, Lincoln) married Isabella Clarke (1837—1916) in Oct 1861 in Lincoln. He was an inland revenue officer, bachelor, and she was spinster, daughter of a coal merchant. They had 3 sons:
Percy Tom Harrison (1870—1959), the youngest, was a schoolmaster at Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. He never married. William Henry Harrison (1866, Waddington—1936, Laverstock, Salisbury) was the eldest and his life is described in the next article in this newsletter (pp 7-8).
Cecil Clark Harrison (1868, Lincoln—1956, Christchurch, NZ), the middle son, provides this contribution to cemetery month. Cecil Clark Harrison became an ironmonger and joined the Windsor Castle Masonic Lodge in 1898. In 1901 he was living at 8 Peascot St, New Windsor, single, an ironmonger & shopkeeper, just opposite Windsor Castle. He remained there until 1924.
In Oct 1901 Cecil married Agnes Monk (1872, Berkshire—1949, Christchurch). Agnes Monk had gone to NZ with her parents and two younger brothers around 1889, aged 17. Agnes and her parents were living in New Plymouth in 1893, and her father was a farmer. The rest of her family remained in NZ all their lives, but sometime before 1901 Agnes returned to England. In the 1901 census, Agnes, aged 28, was living in Beckenham, Kent, described as ‘nurse’ to the Head of household, with occupation: ‘Hospital sick nurse’. The Head was Frederick Weekes, 43, ironmonger. His wife, Martha, 38, of Berkshire, was Agnes’ half-sister. It was from near here, Bromley, that Agnes married Cecil Harrison, ironmonger, who lived in Windsor, 30 miles away. It isn’t clear how they might have met – perhaps via the ironmonger connection?
By 1911 Cecil and Agnes Harrison had 3 children: Helen May (1905—82), Miriam Margaret (1908—after 1946), and Norman Henry William (1910—42). They were all still at 8 Peascot St, Windsor, in 1921, and Cecil was now ‘Purveyor of ironmongery to His Majesty’. In 1924, the whole Harrison family immigrated to NZ – 35 years after Agnes’ first arrival here. Agnes’ parents, William and Georgina Monk, were both dead, but her brothers John and Harry were in Hokitika. All five members of the Harrison family remained in NZ for the rest of their lives. There are descendants but I have been unable to trace them.
Cecil and Agnes Harrison’s only son, Norman H W Harrison, was 13 when he arrived in NZ, and almost certainly went to Christchurch with his parents, where his father was again an ironmonger. By 1935 Norman was in Wellington, first at 34 Hapua Rd, Hataitai; later at 115 Pirie St, Mt Victoria; and then at 116 Novay Rd, Miramar. He was a photo engraver. In 1939 Norman married Doris Lilian Baunton, and by 1942 they had two children, David and Margaret.
In April 1942 he was on a NZ WW2 ballot list, and on 28 August 1942 Private Norman H W Harrison died at Wellington Hospital after a short illness. He was only 32. ‘Find-A-Grave’ said he was buried in Karori Cemetery and had a photo of his memorial stone.
We have lived just outside Karori cemetery since 1989 and often walk in it. We have a favourite bench. Last year we found Norman Harrison’s memorial in Karori Cemetery: it is immediately opposite our favourite bench, and we had been sitting not 13 metres away from it for years without realising it was there or that such a cousin even existed.
Norman H W Harrison is my husband Robert’s 3rd cousin once removed.
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