COMMANDO News Magazine Edition 2 2020

15 August 1945 the forces under his command pro -
tected the flank of Allied advances and caused severe
disruption to Japanese operations.
At the start of the Brunei Revolt in 1962, Resident
John Fisher of the 4 th Division of Sarawak called on the
Dayak tribes for help by sending a boat with the
traditional Red Feather of War up the Baram River. Tom
Harrisson also arrived in Brunei. He summoned the
Kelabits from the highlands around Bario in the 5 th
Division, the centre of his wartime resistance. Hundreds
of Dayaks responded, and formed into companies led
by British civilians all commanded by Harrisson. This
force reached some 2,000 strong, and with excellent
knowledge of the tracks through the interior (there
were no roads), helped contain the rebels. And cut off
their escape route to Indonesia.
Harrisson was appointed Officer of the Order of the
British Empire in the 1959 New Year Honours, for his
work as curator. The title of his biography, The Most
Offending Soul Alive, gives a flavour of the strong feelings
he engendered, but he also had many admirers and is
recognised as a pioneer in several areas.
His Works
Following the war, he was Cura tor of the Sarawak
Museum 1947-1966 (although he did not relinquish his
com mission until 14 March 1951). In the 1950s and
1960s Tom and Barbara Harrisson undertook pioneer -
ing excavations in the West Mouth of the Great Cave at
Niah, Sarawak. Their most important discovery was a
human skull in depo -
sits dated by radio -
carbon to about
40,000 years ago,
the earliest date
for modern humans
in Borneo. The
results of their ex -
ca vations were
never published in
an appropriate
man ner leading to
uncertainty and
doubts as to their
results; however,
WO2 Jack Tradrea, MM, a member of the
SRD took this photograph from the B-24
bomber that transported the covert unit
to Borneo. The image shows the
longhouse where the group spent its first
night in Borneo. Tradrea accompanied
Tom Harrisson during this mission to the
Japanese-held island.
they are largely vindicated by results of excavations
carried out by the Niah Cave Project from 2000-2003.
Three films (amongst more made for British TV) record
the Niah work Harrisson's TV series The Borneo Story
was broadcast by BBC television in 1957.
Books:
• Harrisson, T.H. (1931). Birds of the Harrow District
1925-1930. Harrow School.
• Harrisson, T.H. (1933). Letter to Oxford. The Hate
Press: Gloucestershire.
• Harrisson, Tom (1937). Savage Civilisation. Victor
Gollancz: London.
• Madge, Charles; & Harrisson, Tom (1937). Mass-
Observation. Frederick Muller: London.
• Harrisson, Tom (ed). (1938). Borneo Jungle. An
account of the Oxford University expedition of
1932. Lindsay Drummond Ltd: London.
• Madge, Charles; & Harrisson, Tom (1939). Britain by
Mass-Observation. Penguin: Harmondsworth.
• Harrisson, Tom (1943). Living Among Cannibals.
George G. Harrap & Co: London.
• Harrisson, Tom (ed). (1943). The Pub and the
People. Victor Gollancz: London.
• Harrisson, Tom (1959). World Within. A Borneo
Story. Cresset Press: London.
• Harrisson, Tom (ed). (1959). The Peoples of
Sarawak. Sarawak Museum: Kuching.
• Harrisson, Tom (1961). Britain Revisited. Victor
Gollancz: London.
• Harrisson, Tom (1970). The Malays of South-West
Sarawak before Malaysia. Macmillan: London.
• Harrisson, Tom (1976). Living through the Blitz,
Collins, London
This introduction to Tom Harrisson is to provide his
background to a series of articles that will be provided
in the forthcoming editions of the Commando
magazine. These articles are the result of the recent
discovery of a four-part series of notes Tom Harrisson
produced in the late 1960s and were part of a
collection that has been loaned to ACA Victoria by
Elizabeth Mackenzie, a former member of SRD in the
wife of the late Lieutenant Gilbert Mackenzie, SRD
operative.
Tom Harrisson with an
indigenous Kelabit
tribesman on the
Japanese-held island
of Borneo in 1944.
Z Special Units Secret
War – Operation Semut 1
by Bob Long.
Tom Harrison’s Auto
Biography, The Most
Offensive Soul Alive.
Tom Harrison’s Book
World Within.
COMMANDO ~ The Magazine of the Australian Commando Association ~ Edition 2 I 2020 43