Cornish researcher seeking teen’s roots bowled over by warmth of Westmeath people

The Cornish researcher looking for the family of a Mullingar teenager who died in Cornwall in 1909 says that he has been bowled over by the hospitality he received during a visit to Westmeath last week, writes Rodney Farry.

In a previous edition, the Westmeath Examiner reported the tragic tale of 16-year-old Thomas Richard Collinson Harris. Known to his family as Dick, the youngster died from injuries sustained in a cliff fall on April 19, 1909. It is believed that he was searching for gull eggs with his brothers on the cliffs above the Cornish fishing village of Cadgwith when he fell 70 feet.

Dick was visiting his father Col Thomas Elliot Harrison and his mother, who had been staying in the area, during his Easter break from the prestigious English boarding school, Eton. His death was reported in the Westmeath Examiner and the family’s address was given as Belmont, Mullingar.

The paper was alerted to Dick’s tragic story by Cornish researcher Barry West. Barry became aware of the story in 2013 through a friend of a friend, Lesley Maynard, who in 1996 found a prayer book from a memorial service in Eton for Dick. The book belonged to his brother Ralph, who died in a boating accident in England at the age of 43.

Barry got in touch with the Examiner in the hope that some of Dick’s family may still be living locally and travelled to Mullingar last week to see if he could obtain some more information. He visited Columb Barracks, where he believes Dick’s father Col Elliot Harrison may have served while his family lived in Ireland.

Barry called into the Westmeath Examiner office last Thursday week. Praising the people of Westmeath, he said that he and his friend Helen had been overwhelmed by the welcome they received.

“I travel all around the country in my work and in my 30 years of travel I have never had the warm reception that I’ve had in Mullingar. Everyone has been very warm, very receptive and very helpful.

“We will definitely be back again,” he said.

From his research Barry now thinks that Dick’s family may have spent a relatively short period of time, less than a decade, in the Mullingar area. He believes that the family moved here when Dick’s father was deployed to Columb Barracks.

“We are particularly interested in finding out what Col Elliot Harrison was doing here. Was he based at the barracks in 1908/1909? It seems unlikely that he just happened to live nearby. What were they doing here? Why were they here?”