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{{short description|British flight attendant}}
{{For|other people with this name|Jane Harrison (disambiguation){{!}}Jane Harrison}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=
{{Use British English|date=January 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Barbara Jane Harrison
| honorific_suffix = [[George Cross|GC]]
| image = Barbarajaneharrison.jpg
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| resting_place = Fulford Cemetery, York
| resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} -->
▲| nationality = English
| citizenship =
| other_names = Jane Harrison
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| awards = [[George Cross]] ([[Posthumous recognition|posthumous]])
| footnotes =
}}
'''Barbara Jane Harrison''' [[George Cross|GC]] (24 May 1945 – 8 April 1968), known as '''Jane Harrison''',<ref>Michael Ashcroft, ''George Cross Heroes'', 2010</ref> was a British [[
==Early life==
Harrison was born on 24 May 1945 at the family home in Kingsdale Crescent, [[Bradford]], [[West Riding of Yorkshire]] to Lena and Alan Harrison. She was their second child, another daughter, Susan Elizabeth, having been born in 1941. Harrison attended Greystones School, Bradford. The family later moved to [[Scarborough, North Yorkshire|Scarborough]], where Harrison attended Newby County Primary School. In 1955 her mother died. She passed her [[Eleven plus exam|11-plus]] and attended [[Graham School|Scarborough Girls' High School]]. In 1961, her father moved to [[Doncaster]]. Harrison stayed on at Scarborough to complete her [[GCE Ordinary Level|O levels]] before joining her father in the summer of 1961. She then attended [[Doncaster High School]] until Easter, 1962.
==Career==
After leaving school, Harrison worked at [[Martins Bank]] from 1962 until 1964, then took a job as a [[nanny]] for a [[Switzerland|Swiss]] farmer in the [[Canton of Neuchâtel]] in order to improve her French. She later took another job as a nanny in [[San Francisco]]. While in San Francisco she applied for a job as a [[flight attendant]] with [[British Overseas Airways Corporation]] (BOAC), and she joined BOAC in May 1966.
After completing her training, Harrison was assigned work
On 8 April 1968 Harrison was rostered at her own request to work BOAC Flight 712 Whiskey Echo long-haul to Sydney, Australia, via Zurich, Tel Aviv, Tehran, Bombay (now Mumbai), Singapore and Perth. She told a colleague that she had been invited to a wedding in Sydney, but it is possible that she wanted to see a [[Qantas]] pilot
==Death at her post==
[[File:Barbara Jane Harrison 785.jpg|thumb|Harrison's gravestone, [[Fulford, North Yorkshire|Fulford]] Cemetery, York<ref name="GH">{{cite web▼
|title=A Memorial to Honour the Bravest ▼
|publisher=The Friends of the Green Howards ▼
|url=http://www.greenhowards.org.uk/html-files/vc-gc-memorial-fund.htm ▼
|accessdate=19 November 2007 ▼
|url-status=dead ▼
|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071031092849/http://www.greenhowards.org.uk/html-files/vc-gc-memorial-fund.htm ▼
|archivedate=31 October 2007 ▼
}}</ref> ]]▼
{{
No. 2 engine of B.O.A.C. Boeing 707 G-ARWE caught fire and subsequently fell from the aircraft, leaving a fierce fire burning at No. 2 engine position. About two and a half minutes later the aircraft made an emergency landing at the airport and the fire on the port wing intensified. Miss Harrison was one of the stewardesses in this aircraft and the duties assigned to her in an emergency were to help the steward at the aft station to open the appropriate rear door and inflate the escape chute and then to assist the passengers at the rear of the aircraft to leave in an orderly manner. When the aircraft landed, Miss Harrison and the steward concerned opened the rear galley door and inflated the chute, which unfortunately became twisted on the way down so that the steward had to climb down it to straighten it before it could be used. Once out of the aircraft he was unable to return; hence Miss Harrison was left alone to the task of shepherding passengers to the rear door and helping them out of the aircraft. She encouraged some passengers to jump from the machine and pushed out others.<!-- With flames and explosions all around her, making an escape from the tail of the machine impossible, she directed her passengers to another exit while she remained at her post. She was finally overcome while trying to save an elderly cripple who was seated in one of the last rows and whose body was found close to that of the stewardess. Miss Harrison was a very brave young lady who gave her life in her utter devotion to duty.--><ref name=Gazette/>}}
According to witnesses, after the escape chute had been burnt away Harrison continued to force passengers to safety by pushing them out the door, even as "flames and smoke [were] licking around her face".{{
She then seemed to be preparing to jump but instead turned back inside;{{
[[Anthony Crosland]] ([[President of the Board of Trade]] and the minister responsible for civil aviation) later wrote of Harrison's "lonely and courageous action" and "devotion to duty, in the highest traditions of her calling".{{
In August 1969 Harrison became the only woman to receive the George Cross in peacetime,<ref name="GCDB">{{cite web
|title=Barbara Jane Harrison, GC (Posthumously)
|publisher=Chameleon HH Publishing Ltd
|url=http://www.gc-database.co.uk/recipients/HarrisonBJ.htm
|accessdate=19 November 2007
|archivedate=13 October 2007
}}</ref><ref name=Gazette>{{London Gazette|issue=44913|supp=y|page=8211|date=7 August 1969}}</ref> and its youngest female recipient.<ref>{{cite web|title=George Cross (GC) Database – Highest civilian gallantry award|url=http://www.gc-database.co.uk/decoration.html|website=www.gc-database.co.uk|accessdate=29 May 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last1=Kennedy|first1=Poppy|title=An ordinary woman whose bravery saved the lives of over 100 people|url=https://www.thescarboroughnews.co.uk/news/an-ordinary-woman-whose-bravery-saved-the-lives-of-over-100-people-1-9098815|accessdate=29 May 2018|work=The Scarborough News|date=5 April 2018}}</ref>
It is now at British Airways' Speedbird Centre, which is dedicated to the history of the crew and story of [[British Airways]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/heritage-and-retro/heritage/yorkshire-air-hostess-who-died-heathrow-plane-fire-be-honoured-her-heroism-1749601|title=Yorkshire air hostess who died in Heathrow plane fire to be honoured for her heroism|date=23 September 2019|newspaper=Yorkshire Post|access-date=14 August 2022}}</ref>
==Memorials==
▲[[File:Barbara Jane Harrison 785.jpg|thumb|upright=0.9|Harrison's gravestone, [[Fulford, North Yorkshire|Fulford]] Cemetery, York<ref name="GH">{{cite web
▲ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071031092849/http://www.greenhowards.org.uk/html-files/vc-gc-memorial-fund.htm
▲}}</ref> ]]
The "Barbara Jane Harrison, GC, Memorial Fund"
A plaque in memory of Harrison was unveiled on 23 October 1970.
Since 2010, the Barbara Harrison Memorial Prize is awarded to the student of the Diploma in Aviation Medicine Course "who has demonstrated commitment to others and determination to succeed through the course and in gaining the Diploma".
Also in 1970, a plaque memorial was unveiled in [[St George's Interdenominational Chapel, Heathrow Airport|St
A plaque remembering Harrison is on the churchyard wall of St Laurence's Church, [[Scalby, North Yorkshire|Scalby]], Scarborough.
She is also commemorated with a memorial display in [[Bradford City Hall]].<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/8187305.Barbara___s_bravery_honoured_in_book/ | title=Bradford air stewardess included in national biography | work=Bradford Telegraph and Argus | date=27 May 2010 | accessdate=3 June 2014 | first=Will |last=Kilner}}</ref>
==See also==
{{Portal|United Kingdom|Biography|Aviation}}
* [[Neerja Bhanot]]
* [[Frankie Housley]]
==Sources and further reading==
* {{rma|tag=A|reference=Susan Ottaway, ''Fire Over Heathrow. The Tragedy of Flight 712''.
}}
* {{rma|tag=B|reference={{cite journal | last = O'Brien| first = Tim|date=June 2008 | title = The Last Flight of Whiskey Echo| journal = Aeroplane| volume = 36, Number 6| issue = 422| pages = 30–35| issn = 0143-7240}}
}}
==References==
{{Reflist
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Barbara Jane}}
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[[Category:People from Scarborough, North Yorkshire]]
[[Category:Accidental deaths in London]]
[[Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in England]]▼
[[Category:Flight attendants]]
[[Category:Deaths from fire]]
▲[[Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in England]]
[[Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in 1968]]
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