Tom Harrisson

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Tom Harrisson (1911-1976) was a British anthropologist. In the course of his life he was an ornithologist, explorer, mass-observer, journalist, broadcaster, soldier, ethnologist, museum curator, archaeologist, film-maker, conservationist, and writer.

He was born in Argentina, educated in England, spent much of his life in Borneo (mainly Sarawak), and finished up in the USA, the UK and France before dying in an accident in Thailand.

He was involved in the British social research organization Mass-Observation.

During the Second World War he put forward a project to use the native peoples of Borneo against the Japanese. He parachuted alone from a Consolidated Liberator onto the high plateau occupied by the Kelabit people.

The title of his biography, The Most Offending Soul Alive, gives a flavour of the strong feelings he engendered, but he also had many admirers and is recognised as a pioneer in several areas.