Alan Harrison was born in Norwich, England on 1st August 1930. For seventy-one years he believed he was a full-blooded Englishman but in 2002 he discovered that he had Polish-Jewish roots. While visiting his cousin Linda in Acle, Norfolk she revealed that one of her aunts on Alan’s father’s side of the family had mentioned that the family name should have been Urbinski and not Harrison!

After some research, Alan discovered that his grandfather was called Louis Urbinski who had been born in 1865 in Margotrak, Suwalki, Poland which was then part of the Russian Empire. Records show that Louis came to Britain in the 1880s, arriving in Sunderland. That was probably a key route for immigrants via the Baltic Sea. After a short period, he moved to Newcastle and then on to Norwich. There is no documented explanation why he came to Norfolk but it might have been that he knew of other Poles in the county.

He became a successful photographer in the city with a studio on Gentlemen’s Walk near Davey Place and seemed to enjoy life here. He must have met many influential people who wanted to have their portraits taken and records tell of the naturalisation process he took to become a British citizen. He had to obtain statements from local worthies attesting to his good character and his attitude towards the Norwich community. After a period of some months, Her Majesty’s Government granted him citizenship in 1891.

At some stage he met an attractive young woman called Mary Muskett. For some reason they were married in Antwerp, Belgium and Alan believes that the large Norfolk farming family would not have been keen to have their only daughter marry a foreigner, particularly as he was of Jewish stock. They returned to Britain as Mr and Mrs Urbinski but apparently knew another Pole in Great Yarmouth who had changed his name to Harrison, so Louis and Mary opted to change their names as well!

A son was born in Glasgow in 1903 and named James Henry Harrison who in turn became the father of Alan Harrison. James had known nothing about his father’s Polish-Jewish roots. It appears that a fire had destroyed the photographic studio in Norwich and Louis then travelled around Britain as an itinerant photographer and ended up in the city.

After that, the story became very blurred. It seems that James’s early life was not a happy on as he was boarded-out with various aunts in the Norfolk area, while a younger brother, Walter, was born in Belfast in a workhouse. By this time, the Polish grandfather had “disappeared” so his wife Mary must have experienced some tragedy in her life.

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