Lieutenant-Colonel Bill Harris
12th (Yorkshire) Parachute Battalion

During the continuous fighting which took place between 27 Feb and 6 March on which day he was seriously wounded while moving forward at the head of his company under heavy M.G. fire, Binbashi Harris continually displayed the utmost coolness at all times.

(Military Cross citation, 18 Jul 1941)

Born on 14 May 1912 in British India, William Arthur Brooke Harris was the son of a British colonial official, and was a commissioned officer with the Royal Fusiliers since graduating from RMC, Sandhurst in 1932. From 1938 to 1941, he was seconded to the Sudan Defence Force and fought with the Frontier Battalion in the East Africa campaign against the Italian invasion in 1940.

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