Arthur T Harris - the Godfather
by Walter Downs
In July I go on the internet one morning and on social media see one of my old friends from my flying club days in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) is in the UK on holiday. This is John Reid Rowland. John is over from Zimbabwe to visit family and celebrate his 78th birthday. In the past year, John had a terrible experience in a house fire in which he lost everything. John’s wife Jane passed some years ago and he lost all his personal irreplaceable belongings from his married and flying life. John flew with my dad with Air Zimbabwe. A ‘Go Fund Me’ was set up and many friends from around the world helped John rebuild his life.
The inscription reads: For Jane Singleton, my goddaughter, with love, Arthur T Harris RAF.
Walking through the hangar and looking at the artefacts, John stops and takes his phone out. I need a photo of that, he says, pointing to a photo of Arthur ‘Bomber’ Harris. I learn Bomber Harris is his late wife’s Godfather. This starts an amazing couple of weeks for me helping John out.
John has a digital copy of the signed photograph Arthur sent to his Goddaughter. The original was lost in the house fire. The photo was in relatively poor condition due to age, so my first step was to try and restore the photo for John.
John then sent me something he has been writing on the life of Bomber Harris from his arrival in Rhodesia, where he worked, and the people he got to know. Curiosity got the better of me, so I did some research and found the following:
Passenger manifest 23rd February 1910: A T Harris - 2nd Class - Occupation: Settler - disembarking Beira.
Arthur was involved in farming but when WWI broke out, he enlisted and made his way back to England.
Harris returned to Southern Rhodesia in 1936 to establish the RAF training school, which the Southern Rhodesia Prime Minister, Dr Godfrey Huggins, had discussed and offered to fund on his visit to the UK in 1934. Whilst in Southern Rhodesia Harris was loaned a Hornet Moth to fly himself around in. He rekindled his friendship with the Brooks family. He took young ‘Polly’ Brookes on two flights, one to Victoria Falls and the other to Birchenough Bridge. He was smitten with Polly and, over Rusape on the way to Birchenough Bridge, asked Polly to marry him. Polly declined as she was 19 and Harris was 43.
Polly went on to marry an RAF flying Instructor, Sandy Singleton. When Polly’s first child Jane was born, Harris became her Godfather.
For John’s birthday, I bought him William Dives’ book ‘A Bundu Boy in Bomber Command’. The memories of a Rhodesian who flew Lancaster Bombers for 44 (Rhodesia) Squadron. In this book, we discover John’s father-in-law Sandy Singleton was William Dives’ first flying instructor.
