Tom Harnett Harrisson
(1911-1976), Traveller, explorer and scholar; co-founder of the Mass-Observation social survey projectSitter in 15 portraits
Born in the Argentine and educated at Harrow and Cambridge University. Was a member of the Oxford University expeditions to Borneo and the New Hebrides and published his first anthropological book Savage Civilization in 1936. Founded Mass Observation, 1936, with the poet Charles Madge, to establish an account of the lives of the ordinary people of Britain. During World War II he lead expeditions behind Japanese lines in Borneo and was awarded the DSO in 1946. From 1947 he ran the museum in Kuching in Sarawak, making important archaeological discoveries and establishing an international reputation. Was killed in a road accident in Bangkok in 1976.
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