Walter Burton Harris was born on 29 August 1866. He was the second son of Mr. Frederick W. Harris, of Messrs. Harris and Dixon, shipowners in London, a well-known member of the Society of Friends. Harris' elder brother was the late Right Hon. Frederick Leverton Harris, M.P., and his younger brothers were Sir Austin Edward Harris and Clement Harris, who died young as a captive in a Turkish hospital during the Greeco-Turkish war of 1897. Harris was educated at Harrow and at an early age his brother Clement and he began to travel together. By the age of 18 Harris had travelled across most of the world. He first visited Morocco in 1887, accompanying the mission of Sir William Kirby-Green to Marrakesh. Besides speaking French and Spanish he acquired a fluent command of Moorish colloquial Arabic. Exploits such as his ride to Sheshouan and his journey over the Atlas to Tafilelt, were undoubtedly the foundation of the popularity which Harris came to enjoy among all classes of the Moors. He interested himself in the restoration of old Moorish houses and often frequented Bohemian bars in Morocco. There he is said to have enjoyed discussions with contemporaries including the French novelist, Pierre Loti, and Monsieur Levy, conductor of the orchestra of the Munich Opera. Although homosexual, Harris married Lady Mary Saville, daughter of the 4th Earl of Mexborough, in 1898. The marriage was said to have lasted only a few hours, Lady Mary having discovered Harris's sexuality only after the ceremony. Lady Mary returned to England within days, so upset, it was reported in Tangier, that she lost her reason.
Harris was the Moroccan correspondent for The Times newspaper for many years. His first contributions appeared in The Times in 1887 when Morocco was a storm-centre of European politics. In June 1894, the Sultan Mulai Hassan died while on one of his military migrations. No fixed law of succession existed, and the Sultan's death was kept secret, even from the Army, until the Court was near Rabat, when one of his younger sons, Mulai Abdul Aziz, then 13 years old, was proclaimed. By arrangement with the British Minister, Ernest Satow, Harris undertook to visit both Wazzan and Fez, where rival candidates for the throne were living. Of these eventful years the history was chronicled in The Times by Harris's telegrams and articles with such sparkling wit as not only to seize the attention of the reader but to excite the liveliest interest in the personality and doings of the writer.
In 1903 Harris was captured by Raisuli, a celebrated chieftain. The chief's stronghold was at Zinat, about 12 miles from Tangier, which had been attacked by the Sultan's troops, and there Harris, having fallen into an ambush, spent nine days in a dark and verminous room. In the following year Harris narrowly escaped a second capture, this time in his own villa. A few years later Raisuli nearly captured a picnic party consisting of Harris, Sir Gerard Lowther, then British Minister, M. amd Mme. de Beaumarchais, of the French Legion, and Mr. Christopher Lowther, son of Lord Ullswater. Some of these adventures were related by Harris in 'The Land of an African Sultan'; 'Tafilet', the narrative of a journey of exploration in the Atlas mountains and oases of the North-West Sahara; 'Modern Morocco', written with the late Lord Cozens-Hardy; and 'Morocco That Was'. He also contributed to the 'Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society'. In 1933 Harris suffered a stroke and was taken by boat to the George V Hospital in Malta. He died on 4 April 1933, his body being shipped back to Tangier. He was buried at St Andrew's church at the conclusion of the largest funeral in the city's history.
Harris' travelling companion in this journal was Eustace Henry Lipscomb, the son of Dr. J. T. N. Lipscomb of St. Albans. Eustace was born in 1860 and educated at St Albans Grammar School, Norwich Grammar School, Caius College at Cambridge University and Guy's Hospital. He obtained a number of diplomas and graduated as a doctor in 1889. Until 1921 he was honorary medical officer of the St. Albans and Mid-Hertfordshire Hospital. In 1893 he succeeded his father as medical officer to St. Albans prison, which was taken over in 1915 by the military authorities as a detention barracks. He retained his connection with the building until it was vacated in 1919. His other medical appointments included those of certifying factory surgeon, physician to the Duchess of Marlborough's Charity, and clinical assistant to the East London Hospital for Children and Dispensary for Women. He held the office of president of the South Midland Branch of the British Medical Association. For many years he had been a member of the city council, and in 1909 was elected mayor of St. Albans, an office which had been previously held by both his father and grandfather. He was a prominent Freemason and married Mildred C. Milman in 1912. Their son, John M. Lipscombe was born in 1914. Eustace died, with other family members, on 25 August 1924 in a boating accident at Tregastel, Brittany. He was one of a party of five in a boat which capsized and it is believed he lost his life in an endeavour to save the lives of others. His son, John, was one of the party who was saved. Eustace is buried at Tregastel and there is a memorial screen dedicated to him in St Alban's Cathedral.
Sources: online forum accessed from http://ancestrallychallenged.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=1143, retrieved 24 November 2009;
'The marriage and kidnapping of Walter Burton Harris' accessed from http://www.tangeryotrasutopias.com/2009/08/marriage-and-kidnapping-of-walter.html, retrieved 24 November 2009;
obituary of Eustace Henry Lipscomb accessed from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2304978/pdf/brmedj05831-0045a.pdf, retrieved 24 November 2009.
