Harold Harrison (British Army officer)
English rugby union footballer

Brigadier Harold Cecil Harrison, (26 February 1889 – 26 March 1940) was a senior British Army officer and an English rugby union player, who at club level represented several rugby teams in the British Armed Forces, most notably United Services, and was capped four times for the England national rugby union team. Harrison was part of the England team that won the Grand Slam during the 1914 Five Nations Championship.
Personal history
Harrison was born in Solihull, England in 1889 to Edward James and Laura Harrison and was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham. He was married to Katie Deeley of Box, Wiltshire. He died at home at Ivor Court in Marylebone in London in 1940 at the age of 51. He was buried at East Finchley Cemetery.
Rugby career
Harrison came to note as a rugby player when he represented the Royal Marine Artillery team based in Woolwich. An imposing forward player, he was selected for both the Army and Royal Navy teams before representing the United Services. The United Services was made up of servicemen from the Royal Navy and played against the biggest clubs from all over Great Britain. It was while Harrison was playing for United Services that he was selected to play at international level, gaining his first cap for England in the 1909 Home Nations Championship.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Harold Harrison (British Army officer)” as english rugby union footballer. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as english rugby union footballer. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Oct 29, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q15971217. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1889, 1940, 1914 and 1909.
Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Harold Harrison (British Army officer)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Harold Harrison (British Army officer) primary sources, Harold Harrison (British Army officer) archive and Harold research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Harold Harrison (British Army officer)”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Harold Harrison (British Army officer)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.