Lieutenant William Rupert Harriott Print Page

The tablet was erected by the members of staff at A.M.P in memory of Lieutenant William Harriott who died of wounds in 1900 during the Boer War. 

The tablet erected to the memory of the late Lieutenant W.R. Harriott was formally unveiled at the offices of the A.M.P. Society yesterday in the presence of members of the directorate and the staff. Mrs. Harriott and the father and two brothers of the deceased were also present. The ceremony was performed by Mr. Richard Teece, general manager of the society.

Mr. Teece said the duty he had to discharge was the saddest which had fallen to his lot during his connection with the society. They had assembled to pay the last tribute of respect to, and perpetuate the memory of, one of the most promising members of the staff. He had distinctly before his mind the appearance of Lieutenant Harriott when he went into the office nearly nine months ago to bid his last farewell. His well set-up frame, elastic step, and mobile face all proclaimed the ideal type of the citizen soldier. He (Mr. Teece) felt satisfied that, whatever might happen, the A M.P. Society would have every reason to be proud or its representative. They had all followed the movements of Lieutenant Harriott with the deepest interest, and they might rest assured that in battle or by the watch-fire his thoughts frequently recalled the faces of the friends he had left in the office. They might feel equally assured that the knowledge that warm hearts at home were pulsating in sympathy with his aspirations sustained him in that devotion to duty which won for him the confidence of his commanding officers and the love of his comrades in arms.

About Lieutenant Harriott there was nothing of the soldier of fortune. His career in the office, though it covered only six years, was sufficiently marked to warrant him in presuming that substantial promotion awaited him, but he had qualified himself to take part in the defence of his country in its hour of danger, and when his services were needed he did not hesitate to respond. He deliberately laid down his life in defence of that sacred principle of liberty which had ever been the watchword of Britons, and which alone justified the unceasing march of Great Britain along the road of modern progress. They who knew Mr. Harriott and esteemed him did not need a memorial to keep his memory green. To his sorrowing relatives it would be some consolation to know that his fellow workers were not content that his death should go unrecorded, but would rather that the atmosphere in which he breathed should become redolent of his virtues, while to the unborn generations who were to come into the service of the society the humble memorial would show that in their annals at least his name was held in remembrance, and his conduct held up as an honourable example. To the memory of Lieutenant W.R. Harriott he dedicated the tablet.

The tablet hangs on the central part of the northern wall of the public office, and is inscribed :— " Erected by members of the office staff to the memory of Lieutenant William Rupert Harriott, aged 23 years, an officer of this society, who died of wounds received at the Battle of Eerste Fabricken, South Africa, June, 1900, while attached to the New South Wales Mounted Infantry. Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori."
Sydney Morning Herald (NSW), 25 September 1900. 

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