Reverend Richard Poulett-Harris Print Page

The stained glass window commemorates the Reverend Richard Poulett-Harris (1817-1899), rector of Hobart High School for 30 years. 

Richard Poulett-Harris was born at Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, on 26^th October 1817. He was the eldest son of Charles Poulett- Harris and Anna Maria Van Stout.   Richard was educated in England at Manchester Free Grammar School, and then graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge. His first appointment was as vice-principal of Huddersfield College. He remained there only a short time, and was ordained deacon at Chester by Bishop Sumner, later Archbishop of Canterbury, and made priest two years later at Manchester, where he was given a curacy.

In 1849, the Reverend Harris was appointed classical master of the Blackheath Proprietary School for seven years. He emigrated to Tasmania after his wife's death in 1856. He was appointed rector of the High School, Hobart, and retained this position until his retirement in 1885.  

When Harris retired, the family went to live at Woodbridge, Peppermint Bay. He spent many of his holidays in Launceston and attended St. John's Church. He was a member of the Freemasons and assisted at the opening of the masonic premises in Brisbane Street in June 1884, delivering the address on that occasion.

He was interested in the British & Foreign Bible Society, and was a most prolific writer on all manner of subjects. For the Union Steamship Co. he wrote, "A Visitors Guide to Tasmania", and for a national volume entitled "Picturesque Australia", he wrote the Tasmanian section. 

The Reverend Richard Deodartus Poulett-Harris died in Tasmania on 23^rd December 1899 aged 83. In Launceston he was held in great esteem, and a stained-glass window was erected to his memory in St. John's Church. The subject of the window is 'The Call of St. Andrew and St. Paul'.

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