Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Cromwell George Harris was born on 22 September 1896 at St. George, Bristol, England.  He was the first of nine children of George Frederick Harris, artist, and his second wife Rosetta Elizabeth Harris nee Lucas.  Cromwell was a family name of his maternal grandmother.
 
Cromwell’s sister Ruby May [born 23 May 1897] and brother Carl Francis [born 24 Apr 1899] were born at Penhevad Street, The Grange in Cardiff.  From 1900 the family moved house frequently [ten times in seventeen years] as the family expanded – Rosamund Mary [born 27 Jul 1900], Marcus Rupert [born 10 Jul 1902], Rhona Olive [born 15 Oct 1903], Esme Alberta Florence [born 2 Jun 1907], Olaf Lucas [born 6 Jan 1909] and Patricia Doreen [born 14 Mar 1914].  George F. Harris had a studio in Queen Street, Cardiff.  Although well regarded and frequently commissioned to paint portraits, it was difficult to support his large family on the sales of his portraits, landscapes and still life canvasses.  George F. actively discouraged Cromwell from pursuing his artistic talents. 
 
In December 1912, Crom was sent to work as cabin crew on S. S. Kathleen, a cargo ship owned by WT Symonds P Samuel & Co. Ltd., Cardiff.   He travelled to South America.  He did not enjoy life as a seaman.  By the time Crom turned 17 in 1914, his parents saw no future for the family in Wales.  His mother Rose proposed sending Cromwell and Carl to Australia so that they could obtain employment with plans to eventually purchase a house for the family.  On 6 March 1914, Cromwell and Carl departed Tilbury Dock in London on board S. S. Australind bound for Fremantle, Western Australia.  They arrived on 16 April, 1914 and found lodgings with Mrs. H. Morgan at William Street, Mt. Hawthorn in Perth.  Cromwell, like Carl, found work as a farm hand. 
 
Two years later, on 27 March, 1916, Cromwell enlisted in Perth in the Australian Imperial Forces.  Although aged 19 and a half, he claimed to be 21 years and 2 months old.  A few weeks later, Cromwell signed his younger brother Carl’s enlistment form in the capacity of “guardian”.  The brothers departed Fremantle on board “Port Macquarie” on 13 October, 1916 and disembarked at Plymouth on 12 December, 1916.  They were marched into the 4th Infantry Training Camp at Codford on the Salisbury Plain.  Appointed Acting Lance Corporal on 21 December, 1916, Crom’s rank reverted to Private when he was assigned to the 16th Battalion four months later.  He was sent to France in April, 1917.  The 16th Battalion fought at the first attack on Bullecourt in that month.  After the difficulties of Bullecourt, the 4th Division relocated to Flanders and fought in the Battle of Messines in June, 1917. 
 
The Third Battle of Ypres – better known as Passchendaele – began on 31 July, 1917.  On 5 August, 1917, Crom was wounded when a piece of schrapnel pierced his metal helmet and damaged his scalp and skull.  [Crom kept his damaged helmet [with Flanders mud] as a grim reminder of his lucky escape.  For decades the helmet hung on a wall at his home in Bassendean on the Swan River.] In October 1917, he rejoined the 16th Battalion.  In January 1918, Crom was granted home leave.   Crom took his friend Corporal Reginald Thomas Phillips SN 2250 home to Cardiff to meet the Harris family.  In March 1918, Crom forfeited 26 days pay for overstaying his leave by five days.  His friend Reg, who had fought at Gallipoli as well as on the Western Front, was killed in action in France on 5 April 1918.
 
On 6 July 1918, Crom was wounded on a second occasion in France.  He remained in the field.  On 8 August, 1918 on the first day of the Battle of Amiens, Crom suffered a gunshot wound to the left thigh.  The same day, younger brother Carl, signaller with 48th Battalion, died from wounds at the 29th Casualty Clearing Station.  Crom was transferred to 3rd hospital in Boulogne on 10 August and invalided to the UK on 25 August and admitted to the Royal Herbert Hospital in Woolwich.  Crom did not return to the Western Front.  The Armistice was declared on 11 November, 1918.  Crom returned to Western Australia on board HT “Bakara” arriving in February, 1919.  He was discharged from the AIF on 16 March, 1919 Medically Unfit. Disability – GSW Left Thigh.  Crom and his pal Pulley [Frederick James Pulley SN6819, 16th Battalion] both lived in Perth and remained lifelong friends.

Keen to help fulfil his parents’ dream of a new life in Australia, Crom worked hard.  He was employed as a turbine driver at the East Perth Power Station and spent the rest of his working life there.  By the time his parents and siblings arrived at Albany on board S. S. Demosthenes in 1920, Crom had established himself at “Cardiff Cottage” at Mt. Hawthorn. 
 
Crom married his childhood sweetheart Agnes Margaret [Marg] Robbins at St. John’s Church of England, Maroubra in Sydney on 14 June 1922.  After a honeymoon in the Blue Mountains, they travelled back to Perth by ship.  In 1924 they took advantage of a housing scheme for ex-servicemen and purchased land for their first home at Reserve Road, Wembley. From 1934 until his death, Crom lived at Bassendean on the Swan River in a house he had built himself. 
 
During the Second World War, Crom enlisted in the Volunteer Defence Corps.  

After his retirement in 1961, Crom and his wife travelled extensively around Australia in a home made campervan. 

Crom died at the Repatriation General Hospital at Nedlands on 3 April, 1980.  He was privately cremated and his ashes were buried near a favourite lemon scented sugar gum tree at his Bassendean home.  He was remembered as a kind, gentle, self-effacing, peace loving and generous man.