McGill Library
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Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Harris, John H. (John Hobbis), 1874-1940
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
1874-1940
History
Sir John Hobbis Harris was born on July 29, 1874, in Wantage, Berkshire, England.
He was an English missionary, an anti-slavery campaigner, and a Liberal Party politician. In 1895, he worked in London for Cooks, the gentlemen's outfitters. As a devout Christian, he began to train to become a Baptist missionary in Central Africa and together with his wife, he sailed for the Congo Free State in 1898. They were soon horrified by the brutal treatment, murder, and enslavement of the native people at the hands of the Belgian agents exploiting the territory for rubber and ivory. To protest the colonial system in Africa, Harris and his wife became active campaigners, travelling and giving lectures at hundreds of public meetings in Britain, Europe, and the United States. Harris published the pamphlet "Rubber is Death: the Story of the Bonguronga Rubber Collectors" (1905) and contributed numerous articles to Anti-Slavery Reporter and Aborigines' Friend. He became a political crusader against white capitalist imperialism in general, advocating a system of genuine, international trusteeship in the interests of all native peoples on every continent. He served as secretary to the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society (1910-1940) and a Liberal Member of Parliament (1923-1924). Harris was knighted in the New Year Honours list of 1933 for his services to the Anti-Slavery and Aborigines Protection Society.
In 1898, he married Alice Seeley (1870–1970). He died on April 30, 1940, in Frome, Somerset, England.