Lieutenant-Colonel T.W.A.H. Harrison-Topham
1/4th Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry

On New Year’s Day Lieut.-Colonel Harrison Topham, who had led the Battalion so gallantly from Normandy to Nijmegen, was unfortunately compelled to relinquish command owing to ill-health

(Harold Carmichael Wylly, History of the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry, 156)

Born on 23 August 1903 in Greenwich, London, Thomas William Amyas Harrison Harrison-Topham was the son of Colonel Thomas Harrison-Topham who won the D.S.O. as a captain in Burma during the 1891-92 campaign. The younger Harrison-Topham took a commission with the King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry in 1924, served on the North West frontier in India, was promoted to captain in 1935. and became acting major in April 1940.

Following duties as brigade major for 169th Infantry Brigade in 1941, he served as general staff officer with the senior officers school in 1942 and then Training, Home Forces until August 1944. After Lieutenant Colonel Cecil Disney Barlow was killed on 26 July 1944 during the Normandy breakout, the 1/4th Battalion, King’s Own Yorkshire Light Infantry needed a new commanding officer. On 5 August, Harrison-Topham arrived from the United Kingdom to take over.

He led the battalion throughout the remainder of the Normandy campaign through to the drive into the Low Countries during the fall of 1944. After five months in the field and suffering from poor health, he was replaced by Major A.J.A. Arengo-Jones, second-in-command of the 2nd Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment at the start of 1945.

Harrison-Topham died on 28 September 1966 in Leeds, West Yorkshire.