Lieutenant Archie M. A. Harris, RE (d. 1889)
/Lieutenant Archie M. A. Harris, RE is commemorated by a memorial in the North Quire Aisle.
I.M.
Archie M. A. Harris,
Lieutenant Royal Engineers
aged 24
who was shot in pursuit of a Pathan Robber on the Afghan Frontier, on 11th Oct. 1889.
"This is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only
true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent".
John XVIII 3
Lieutenant Harris went in pursuit of a rifle-thief in company with troopers of Native Cavalry. He had almost caught him when the robber turned and shot him through the heart. So close was he to his killer that when his body was recovered scorch marks from his assailant's rifle were found on his uniform. The Pathan was later apprehended and brought to trial.*
*cf Kipling's
"Arithmetic on the Frontier."
A scrimmage in some Border Station - A canter down some darx defile - Two thousand pounds of education
Drops to a ten-rupee jezail.
The Crammer's boast, the Squadron's pride
Shot like a rabbit in a hide !
From the notebooks ‘The Naval and Military Memorials of Rochester Cathedral’ (1979)
by Roy Trett, OBE, TD,
Rochester Cathedral Chapter Library
The medieval tombs of the Presbytery and Quire Transept have had a tortured history which many effigies apparently moved and several defaced along with the medieval memorials and brasses over the Early Modern period.
Rochester Cathedral features an exceptionally large collection of Colonial-era military memorials and artefacts. This series has begun to highlight the stories behind these collections and their place in our global heritage.
