he was appointed to superintend the arrangements for internal accommodation and navigation. The ship being at last completed after great delay, and renamed the Great Eastern, was sent on a trial trip from Deptford to Portland Roads. When off Hastings on 9 Sept. 1859 a terrific explosion of steam killed ten of the firemen, and seriously injured several other persons. Harrison showed prompt courage and resource, and brought the vessel into Portland, although in a very damaged state. The Great Eastern was then put into winter quarters near Hurst Castle. On 21 Jan. 1860 her commander, while sailing from Hythe to Southampton in the ship's boat, was capsized during a squall near the Southampton dock gates, and when taken from the water was found to be dead. He was buried in St. James's cemetery, Liverpool, 27 Jan., when upwards of thirty thousand people followed his body to the grave. Some time previously he had become surety for a friend, by whose sudden death all his savings were lost. A sum of money was therefore raised for the benefit of his aged mother, wife, and three children.
[Illustrated London News, 6 Nov. 1858, p. 435, with portrait, 28 Jan. 1860, p. 83, and 4 Feb. 1860, p. 116, with portrait; Annual Register, 1859, pp. 136–40, and 1860, pp. 10–12; Drawing-Room Portrait Gallery of Eminent Personages, 3rd ser. 1860, with portrait; Times, 23–31 Jan. 1860, and 9 March; Pall Mall Gazette, 31 Aug. 1888, pp. 5–6.]
HARRISON, WILLIAM (1813–1868), vocalist and operatic manager, the son of a coal merchant, was born at Marylebone, London, 15 June 1813. He made his first appearance as an amateur concert singer in 1836, and then became a pupil at the Royal Academy of Music. During 1837 he appeared as a professional singer at the concerts of the Academy and the Sacred Harmonic Society. On 2 May 1839 he appeared on the stage at Covent Garden in ‘Henrique,’ and afterwards at Drury Lane as Thaddeus in Balfe's ‘Bohemian Girl’ (1843), Don Cæsar de Bazan in Wallace's ‘Maritana,’ and in Benedict's ‘Bride of Venice’ (1843) and ‘Crusaders’ (1846) on their first production. He afterwards played at the Princess's and the Haymarket, and in August 1854 went to the United States with Miss Louisa Pyne. On their return they joined in a scheme for establishing an English opera company. The first season commenced at the Lyceum Theatre on 21 Sept. 1857, with an English version of Auber's ‘Les Diamants de la Couronne.’ In the following year Covent Garden Theatre was engaged, and performances were given there every winter up to 19 March 1864. At first the undertaking met with great success, but it gradually languished. The company, however, produced the following new operas: Balfe's ‘Rose of Castille’ (October 1857), ‘Satanella’ (December 1858), ‘Bianca’ (December 1860), the ‘Puritan's Daughter’ (November 1861), ‘Blanche de Nevers’ (November 1862), and the ‘Armourer of Nantes’ (February 1863); Wallace's ‘Lurline’ (1860), and ‘Love's Triumph’ (1862); Benedict's ‘Lily of Killarney’ (1862); Mellon's ‘Victorine’ (1859); and William Howard Glover's ‘Ruy Blas’ (October 1861). On 8 Nov. 1864 Harrison opened Her Majesty's Theatre as sole manager with an English version of Gounod's ‘Faust;’ the season terminated on 16 March 1865, with Harrison's benefit; the opera was ‘Maritana,’ with selections from the ‘School for Scandal,’ in which Harrison took the part of Charles Surface, his first appearance in non-lyrical drama. His last appearance was at Liverpool, in May 1868, as Fritz in the ‘Grand Duchess of Gerolstein.’ He died at Kentish Town, 9 Nov. 1868, and was buried at Kensal Green. He married a daughter of Mrs. Maria Clifford, the actress, and left two sons. Harrison translated Massé's operetta, ‘Les Noces de Georgette,’ and produced it at Covent Garden in 1860 as ‘Georgette's Wedding.’ In addition to a tenor voice of remarkable purity and sweetness, he had the advantage of being an excellent actor.
[Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians; Cooper's Biog. Dict.; Era, 15 Nov. 1868, p. 10; articles on Balfe, Michael William, and Benedict, Sir Julius.]
HARRISON, WILLIAM (1802–1884), antiquary, son of Isaac Harrison, hat manufacturer and merchant, was born at Salford, Lancashire, on 11 Dec. 1802. Early in life he sought his fortune at the Cape of Good Hope. Returning to England he settled down about 1845 on a small estate of his own in the Isle of Man, where he became a member of the House of Keys, and afterwards a justice of the peace. Through his exertions the Manx Society was formed in 1858 for the publication of documents relating to the Isle of Man, and he contributed fourteen volumes to the works of the society, including ‘The Bibliotheca Monensis, a Bibliographical Account of Works relating to the Isle of Man,’ 1861, 2nd edit. 1876; ‘Manx Proverbs and Sayings, Ballads,’ &c. 1868; ‘Account of the Diocese of Sodor and Man,’ 1879; and ‘Manx Miscellanies,’ 1880. He was an occasional writer on antiquarian matters in the ‘Manchester
