Walter Burton Harris

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Walter Burton Harris
Harris by Sir John Lavery (1907)
Born(1866-08-29)August 29, 1866
DiedApril 4, 1933(1933-04-04) (aged 66)
NationalityBritish
OccupationJournalist

Walter Burton Harris (29 August 1866 – 4 April 1933) was a journalist, writer, traveller and socialite who achieved fame for his writings on Morocco, where he worked for many years as special correspondent for The Times. He settled in the country at the age of 19, eventually building himself a fine villa in Tangier where he lived for much of his life. His linguistic skills and physical appearance enabled him to pose successfully as a native Moroccan, travelling to parts of the country regarded as off-limits to foreigners. He wrote a number of well-regarded books and articles on his travels in Morocco and other countries in the Near and Far East. Harris also played a significant, though not always constructive, role in the European diplomatic intrigues that affected Morocco around the turn of the 20th century.

Early career and travels

Harris was born in

Cambridge University and had already managed to travel around the world by the age of 18.[2][3]

In 1887 he accompanied a British diplomatic mission to Morocco and settled in Tangier at the age of 19. He was briefly married to Lady Mary Savile, the daughter of the 4th Earl of Mexborough from 1898 to 1906,[1] but the marriage was annulled on the grounds of non-consummation.[4] He lived an openly homosexual, tending towards paedophilic, lifestyle thereafter, though this was little hindrance in the social milieu of Tangier at the time.[1] He was independently wealthy, living off a personal allowance and a stipend from The Times, and was an ambitious social climber who associated with royalty and high-ranking politicians.[1]

Harris was a fluent speaker of French, Spanish and Moroccan Arabic, and his physical features were such that he could pass for a native Moroccan. This enabled him to travel undetected into the interior of Morocco, which was at the time off-limits to outsiders, and thus see and describe places that no European had been to. During his travels he disguised himself as an inhabitant of the Rif, looking (as The Times put it) like "the complete fanatical-looking type, with shaven head but for a foot-long lock hanging from the crown, red guncase for turban, short brown jelab, bare reddish-tanned neck and legs, carrying a long native musket, and glancing furtively as he went, just as such men from home do."[2]

He soon won the respect of the Moroccans for his exploits and made some unlikely friends, such as the mountain chieftain Raisuni who repeatedly fought the Moroccan government (and later the Spanish) during the first 25 years of the 20th century. Harris was captured and briefly imprisoned by Raisuni, regaining his freedom via a prisoner exchange, but came to establish a friendship with the chieftain and later wrote admiringly about him. He was also a confidant of at least three Moroccan sultans and built himself a fine home in Tangier, the Villa Harris.[1]

Journalistic career and political involvement

Harris began writing for The Times in 1887 and became a permanent correspondent from 1906, at a time when Morocco was becoming a focus for conflict between the European powers.

First World War.[6]

He played an active part in the international disputes in Morocco, using his access to high-ranking Moroccan figures to influence the course of events. Britain had long been Morocco's dominant trading partner and Harris initially opposed France's ambitions to play a bigger role in the country. He believed that Morocco's independence should be preserved and that the country should be helped to modernise itself and overcome the endemic disorder that plagued it. He therefore helped initially to support the Germans, who likewise opposed French involvement in Morocco, until he was instructed in 1905 by The Times' foreign editor Valentine Chirol – who was closely linked to the British

Foreign Office – that it was necessary to support the French. The Entente Cordiale, signed in 1904, clearly assigned Egypt and Morocco to the spheres of influence of Britain and France respectively. In the Hafidiya coup, Harris attacked the Makhzen of Abd al-Hafid in The Times,, whom France also opposed.[7]

Harris thereafter toned down his hostility to France, though he continued to press for international efforts to assist Morocco's modernisation.

Church of St Andrew
.

Villa Harris in Tangier

In the 1890s Harris erected an expansive villa in the hills east of Tangier, which he used until his death. The structure was later operated as a

Works

A diary belonging to Harris describing his travels in Europe during the 1880s or 1890s is held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.[14]

Gallery

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Fisher & Best 2011, p. 155.
  2. ^ a b c "Obituary – Mr. Walter Harris". The Times. 5 April 1933. p. 16.
  3. ^ a b Zur Mühlen 2010, p. 209.
  4. ^ Jeal 2007, p. 106.
  5. ^ Harris 2002, p. ?.
  6. ^ a b Fisher & Best 2011, p. 156.
  7. ^ al-Khudaymī 2009, p. ?.
  8. ^ Fisher & Best 2011, p. 157.
  9. ^ Fisher & Best 2011, p. 158.
  10. ^ "Villa Walter Harris Museum". Archnet.
  11. ^ Lucas Peters. "An Inside Look at the New Villa Harris Museum of Tangier". Journey Beyond Travel.
  12. ^ "Review of The Land of the African Sultan: Travels in Morocco, 1887, 1888, and 1889 by Walter B. Harris". The Athenæum (3247): 79–80. 18 January 1890.
  13. ^ "Review of Tafilet: The Narrative of a Journey of Exploration in the Atlas Mountains and the Oases of the North-west Sahara by Walter B. Harris". The Athenaeum (3559): 46–47. 11 January 1896.
  14. ^ "European travel journal of Walter Burton Harris". Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham. Retrieved 2 March 2024.

Sources

External links