JEDDAH: Roger Harrison, who has died on the Spanish island of Mallorca at the age of 75, was a man of more than one career and many talents — among them an event organizer, a writer and photographer, a jeweler and gemologist, a lecturer and raconteur.
Here at Arab News, where he was a senior reporter from 2001 to 2013 covering Saudi affairs and expat life, he will be best remembered as a news magnet to whom stories simply happened.
Among Harrison’s many achievements was his work on the book Wings Over Arabia, a photographic record of a three-man glider team flying over and photographing spectacular and rarely seen areas of the Kingdom. The team included Prince Sultan bin Salman, the first Arab and Muslim astronaut, and Prince Bandar bin Khaled Al-Faisal.
In his preface to the book, Prince Bandar paid tribute to Harrison’s abilities and his work: “He captures the beauty of my country from a perspective that most of the population will never experience. I thank him sincerely for writing and photographing a definitive work that is both a fascinating story and, perhaps, a source of inspiration for future glider pilots.”
So fascinated was the British historian Robert Lacey by Harrison’s work that he wrote: “Lawrence of Arabia captured it from a camel. Roger Harrison captures it from the air. Both convey the magic of Arabia with breathtaking power.”
Harrison was also one of the last journalists to interview the famed explorer of Arabia and the Middle East, Sir Wilfred Thesiger, in 2002.
Stories had a way of coming to Harrison. One of his last visits to Saudi Arabia was in October 2019, when he was invited to a government-sponsored media conference just as visas on arrival became available to foreigners. Harrison flew into Jeddah from London, and offered to pay the visa fee by credit card, prompting a bank security request to enter a one-time password — which was sent to his cell phone back in London. It seemed an insoluble problem, but the Saudi officer at the airport offered to pay the fee. Harrison assured him he would be repaid as soon as the problem was sorted out, but the officer said: “You are our guest. You don’t have to worry.”
Later Harrison regaled the Arab News Jeddah newsroom with the tale, his eyes filling with tears as he told how a complete stranger had come unhesitatingly to his assistance. He loved Saudi Arabia, and the Saudis loved him back in equal measure.
Harrison was born in Eastbourne, England, in 1946. He arrived in Saudi Arabia with his wife Sian in September 1996, to teach at Jubail Industrial College, where he remained for four years. The couple then went back to London, but the Kingdom had made its mark on Harrison and he returned to Jeddah to teach English to the Saudi Navy.
Harrison’s career with Arab News began by accident — quite literally. He and his wife were involved in a collision with a car that came out of the desert and ran straight into them. Harrison wrote a letter to the newspaper describing the incident, and Arab News replied asking him to write it in the form of an article rather than a letter. The piece appeared on the front page under the headline: “Why throw yourself to death when you can drive there?” The article led to an offer of employment at Arab News.
“He loved the people he worked with and he loved the opportunities the paper gave him,” his wife Sian said. “He went to places he would never have visited and was even able to indulge his love of racing by test-driving cars he could never have owned. The articles he wrote, especially ‘Adam and Eid,’ showed the depth of his humanity and his love of Saudi Arabia and its people. There were so many articles that displayed this empathetic side of Roger. The one he wrote after the dreadful floods of Jeddah was more personal, about the many friends who helped us.”
The Harrisons left Jeddah in 2013 and went to live in Ras Al-Khaimah in the UAE. He had visited once to write an article, and liked the idea of being there while still close to Saudi Arabia. The couple’s son Ben, a newly qualified teacher, came from London to join them and applied for his first teaching post — in Riyadh. “Roger was thrilled the Harrison connection was continuing in the Kingdom and gave him a reason to visit,” Sian said. “Ben left Riyadh in 2019 and was going to accompany Roger on a trip to Saudi Arabia in January, when they wanted to do a follow-up to the Wings Over Arabia book, but this time from the ground.”
Ben Harrison hopes to return for a visit, and would love to be able to honor his father’s last wish.
In 2017, the Harrisons moved to Mallorca, which they knew well from visits over the years. Why Mallorca? “We had been visiting the beautiful Spanish island for over 20 years since my sister had moved to live there,” said Sian. “My mother also sold up and left London to live in Mallorca. She was very close to Roger. They loved to debate and had many spirited conversations, and the highlight of their week was a shopping trip to Lidl where they discussed anything and everything.”
Sian has received many messages of condolence from people who knew her husband. “They have shown me a side of him that truly shows the honorable and honest man he was, his old-fashioned values of being true to your word, his love for the Kingdom and the opportunities it gave him. I can’t stress enough how much being in Saudi Arabia meant to him.”
Harrison had great respect for Saudi Arabia, and was adamant in correcting people’s misconceptions about the Kingdom. He regularly called UK radio stations and wrote letters to various publications out of a sincere desire to set the record straight. As Prince Sultan bin Salman once said, Harrison knew more about Saudi Arabia than most Saudis.
“Although I never had the pleasure of working with Roger, I have crossed paths many times with him covering events in Jeddah in the early 2000s. He was full of passion for journalism and for the Kingdom, was kind to everyone around him and was always the first to arrive and last to leave during any press event,” said Faisal J. Abbas, current Editor in Chief of Arab News.
“Obviously, we at Arab News extend our condolences to Roger’s family, and on behalf of all the editors and colleagues he worked with in the past, we thank him for all the work he has done and all his contributions to our newspaper,” he added.
Harrison’s motto was: “Everybody dies, but some never live.” He lived a remarkable life in a remarkable country, and documented all that he could for future historians and writers of Arabia. He was a gentle soul, a humanist first and journalist last. Among those who admired and respected him is Razan Baker, director of international communication at the Saudi Arabian Olympic Committee.
“He touched many lives, including my own, and for that I consider myself lucky,” she said. “I was honored to know him as one of my dearest Arab News family members. He was always inspiring and motivating. Nothing was impossible for him. He was like a generous moving library that challenged us all to learn, be passionate about what we love and do, and try to do it better.”