portrait painter, is known only from a report of his death in the Sydney Morning Herald on 7 June 1866, which stated that he had been living at Manly Beach (where his wife leased the swimming baths) until December 1865. Then, leaving his wife and children at Manly, Harrison moved to Richmond, New South Wales, intending to set up as a portrait painter. On 17 May 1866 he was found dead in his bed at Reid’s Hotel with a bottle containing a mixture of spirits and laudanum nearby. Despite the absence of laudanum in his stomach and his wife’s protestations, the coroner returned a verdict of suicide, and when Mrs Harrison arrived at Richmond she found that her husband had been denied church burial: 'the body … was cast into a grave—without a prayer, without a thought—like the body of a dog, or a fearful malefactor’, reported the indignant Herald correspondent. It is not known if Harrison had painted any portraits before his untimely end but his death certificate gives his profession as artist.
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- Writers:
- Staff Writer
- Date written:
- 1992
- Last updated:
- 2011
