HARRIS Ronald

Appears on the Army casualty list for Worcestershire.

Ronald Harris attended Worcester Royal Grammar School from 1917 to 1920. He was a keen member of Hallow Cricket Club where he was both a player and an official. He was also Scoutmaster to the Hallow Troop, and a Buffalo and Forrester. At the outbreak of war he joined the Army Dental Corps and was sent to France in October 1939. He died of wounds received whilst in France with the British Expeditionary Force. The entrance to the village church was lined with members of Hallow Cricket Club in flannels as his Union Jack draped coffin passed to its final resting place.

Source for additional information: In Dedication to a Future World By Mark Rogers, 1999.

The following report appears in Berrow’s Worcester Journal, Saturday 8th June 1940:
L-Cpl. R. Harris, Hallow
Members of Hallow Cricket Club, in flannels, lined the entrance to the village church on Saturday to pay tribute to one of their players, L-Cpl. Ronald Harris.
Mr Harris, whose home was at 37 Lechmere Crescent, Worcester, died of wounds sustained while serving with the B.E.F. He joined the Army Dental Corps on the outbreak of war and went to France in October.
He had been a keen member, both as player and official of Hallow Cricket Club for many years, and besides being a Buffalo and s Forester he had found time also to devote to the interests of the rising generation, being scoutmaster of the Hallow troop.
The service, which began with the National Anthem, was conducted by the Vicar (the Rev. C.M. Stickings) and the organist (Mr T. Gregg) played Handel’s “Largo” and “O rest in the Lord.” The hymn was “There is a land of pure delight.”
The coffin was draped with the Union Jack, and after the committal prayers, the simple last tributes of Buffaloism, the dropping of ivy leaves into the grave, were performed by two of his brothers who represented the Sparkbrook and Haymills (Birmingham) and Loyal Jephson (Leamington) lodges.
The report continues with a list of mourners who attended the funeral.

A letter from the Reverend W.J. Reynolds, Hallow Vicarage dated 18th September 1950 can be found within war records held at Worcestershire Archives requesting that Ronald Harris be added to the county roll of honour.