McGill Library
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Harris, Robert Carr, 1843-1923
Robert Carr-Harris was born on July 9, 1843, in London, England.
He was a civil engineer, educator, and author. He was educated in King’s College, London. In 1861, his family emigrated to Canada where he became a civil engineer in 1864. In the 1870s, he worked for the Canadian Pacific Railroad, calculating bridge superstructure and inspecting the bridges from the Rocky Mountains to Vancouver on behalf of the Dominion government. He also worked for the Brooklyn Waterworks (1874), the Pictou Railway, and Quebec Government Railway. He was a consulting Bridge Engineer for St. George Viaduct, Grand Trunk Railway. As an expert with the most varied and extended professional experience in railroad construction, he became a Professor of Civil Engineering first at the Royal Military College, Kingston, and then at the Queen's University, Kingston (1879-1897). He was a Vice-President of the Kingston Humane Society and he published several articles and textbooks on civil engineering.
In 1875, he married Ellen Jane Fitton (1840-1890) and in 1896, he married Hannah Bertha Wright (1863–1949). He died on April 12, 1923, in Ottawa, Ontario.
Harris, William Critchlow, 1854-1913
William Critchlow Harris was born on April 30, 1854, in Bootle, near Liverpool, England.
He was an architect noted mainly for his projects in Maritime Canada. In 1856, his family moved to Prince Edward Island. In 1870, after schooling in Charlottetown, he was apprenticed to architect David Stirling in Halifax. He returned to Charlottetown in 1875 and among his first commissions was Beaconsfield, a 25-room mansion that is today the headquarters of the Prince Edward Island Museum and Heritage Foundation. In 1877, Stirling joined him in Charlottetown and they formed a partnership. Harris’s specialty was churches. His buildings reflect a talented and original approach to the High Victorian Gothic style. Over 120 are extant in Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. They include St. James Anglican Church, Mahone Bay, NS (1886); St Paul's Anglican Church, Charlottetown (1895); and his masterwork, All Souls' Chapel, Charlottetown (1888), which contains 18 paintings by his brother Robert. In 1881, he became an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
He died on July 16, 1913, in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Harris, Wm. (William), 1831-1885
Rev. William Harris was born on December 20, 1831, in Chester County, Pennsylvania.
He was a clergyman. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1850. For over eight years he was engaged in mercantile business first in Philadelphia, and then in New York. In 1858, under the influence of strong religious convictions, he turned away from the business prospects and entered Princeton Seminary, graduating in 1861. He served as a Civil War Union Army Chaplain of the 106th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (1861-1862) and as a Relief Agent of the U. S. Sanitary Commission (1863). He was assistant pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Towanda, Pa. (1864-1865) and was ordained an evangelist by the Presbytery of Susquehanna in 1864. In 1870, he accepted the office of Treasurer of the College of New Jersey. Besides preaching in the college chapel, he was interested in all that concerned the religious welfare of the students. He was also the Treasurer of the Alumni Association of Princeton Seminary.
In 1864, he married Christina Van Alen Butler (1837–1918). He died on March 23, 1885, in Savannah, Georgia, and is buried in Princeton Cemetery, New Jersey.
Edward Harrison was a likely a merchant who lived in Quebec City.
Harrison, Jack Elmer, 1899-1980
Dr. Jack Elmer Harrison was born on December 28, 1899 in Ontario. He graduated from McGill Medical School in 1923 and did postgraduate training in New York, Hungary and Vienna and practiced in Vancouver from 1926 until his retirement. He was senior obstetrician and gynecologist at Vancouver General Hospital and an associate professor in obstetrics and gynecology in the medical faculty of the University of British Columbia. He developed special techniques in many gynecological procedures and introduced the operation of vaginal hysterectomy and repair to Vancouver. He died on July 17, 1980 at age 80 (from his obituary "Dr. J.E. Harrison" by W.F. Bie, MD, CM, Cert. RCPS(C) in British Columbia Medical Journal, 1980, vol. 22, no. 9).