Arthur Leyland Harrison

Before leading bluejackets into machine-gun fire on the Belgian coast, Arthur Leyland Harrison was known across Great Britain as a formidable forward on the rugby pitch. Born in Torquay, Devon, on 3 February 1886, the son of Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur John Harrison of the Royal Fusiliers and Adelaide Ellen Harrison, he received his education at Brockhurst Preparatory School and Dover College. Entering the Royal Navy as a naval cadet on 15 September 1902 aboard the pre-dreadnought battleship HMS Mars, he advanced to Sub-Lieutenant in 1906, Lieutenant in 1908, and Lieutenant-Commander in 1916. As a commissioned officer in the Royal Navy during the First World War, no official service number was assigned to him. Alongside his naval duties, his athletic prowess earned him selection for United Services Portsmouth RFC, the Royal Navy team, and two international caps for the England national rugby union team in 1914, making him the only England international rugby player awarded the Victoria Cross.

Posted to the battlecruiser HMS Lion in June 1912, Harrison served aboard her through major naval engagements in the North Sea. He saw action at the Battle of Heligoland Bight in August 1914 and the Battle of Dogger Bank in January 1915. During the Battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916, he managed gunnery control under heavy fire, earning a Mention in Despatches for his conduct aboard Lion.

Volunteering for the raid on the German-occupied port of Zeebrugge on the night of 22–23 April 1918, Lieutenant-Commander Harrison assumed command of the Naval Storming Parties embarked on the cruiser HMS Vindictive. The plan required landing seamen and Royal Marines on the heavily defended harbour Mole to silence coastal artillery and permit blockships to seal the U-boat canal exit. Moments before HMS Vindictive berthed against the Mole, an enemy shell fragment struck Harrison in the head, fracturing his jaw and knocking him unconscious. Regaining consciousness on deck, he refused medical treatment, mounted the gangway, and took command of his landing party under intense machine-gun fire. Knowing that delaying the assault on the seaward batteries would endanger the entire blocking operation, he assembled his men and spearheaded an attack down the exposed Mole head, where he was killed at the front of his command at thirty-two years of age.

The posthumous award of the Victoria Cross was published in the Supplement to the London Gazette on 14 March 1919:

"For most conspicuous gallantry at Zeebrugge on the night of the 22nd-23rd April, 1918. This officer was in immediate command of the Naval Storming Parties embarked in 'Vindictive'. Immediately before coming alongside the Mole Lieut.-Commander Harrison was struck on the head by a fragment of a shell which broke his jaw and knocked him senseless. Recovering consciousness he proceeded on to the Mole and took over command of his party, who were attacking the seaward end of the Mole. The silencing of the guns on the Mole head was of the first importance, and though in a position fully exposed to the enemy's machine-gun fire Lieut.-Commander Harrison gathered his men together and led them to the attack. He was killed at the head of his men, all of whom were either killed or wounded. Lieut.-Commander Harrison, though already severely wounded and undoubtedly in great pain, displayed indomitable resolution and courage of the highest order in pressing his attack, knowing as he did that any delay in silencing the guns might jeopardise the main object of the expedition, i.e., the blocking of the Zeebrugge-Bruges Canal."

Harrison's body was never recovered from the Mole. He is commemorated on the Zeebrugge Memorial at Zeebrugge Churchyard in Belgium, and his decorations were presented to his mother by King George V at Buckingham Palace on 17 May 1919.