Harry Addison grew up in North-East England. His father worked on the railways. Harry had a brilliant mind and won a scholarship to Oxford where he got a first class honours degree. He also had a first from Durham University. Throughout his life he would give talks and lectures, training young people in particular to understand the spiritual and ideological struggles that shape our world. ‘The causes and courses of revolution’ was the title of one such talk, delivered to young people living at the MRA training and conference centre in Tirley Garth, north-west England during the 1970s.
He met Frank Buchman in Oxford in 1930 and devoted his life to volunteering with MRA from 1934 onwards. He had input into at least one of Frank Buchman’s speeches, which were often collective efforts. He coined the phrase: ‘...with peace and prosperity as our servants and not our masters, to build a new world, create a new culture and change the age of gold into the Golden Age’. (Report to the National Press Club, Washington, May 1939, Remaking the World).
He served with the British Army Education Corps in India and Burma 1945-1946.
Harry led a group of 28 mostly young Europeans from eight countries who were invited to the United States in 1950. Among them were Fiona Daukes (then Fiona Pugh), Geoffrey Pugh and Elsa Vogel (then Elsa Pâris). They traveled widely in the States, staying in private homes and MRA centres and living without salary – British people were only allowed to take £5 abroad at that time of post-war austerity.
Later, Harry worked full-time with MRA in his home area, basing in Newcastle upon Tyne. He also spent time in London, inviting people to see the plays at the Westminster Theatre. After a full morning travelling round London meeting and inviting people, he would sometimes collapse into a deck-chair in Hyde Park after lunch to recover.
In later years he spent several years at Tirley Garth before eventually retiring to a Methodist home in Liverpool with his long-term friend, Norman Gain, a retired school teacher.
