Mel Harrison

Mel Harrison is Paul McGill’s solicitor, trusted confidant, and practical support during the crisis that follows Paul’s disabling car accident. His role joins two forms of service: he safeguards Paul’s wishes through exacting legal work, while standing beside him when injury, isolation, and despair make that work difficult to bear.

Identity and Professional Role

Mel prepares legal documents for Paul and handles matters too confidential to entrust to others. Paul regards his drafting as exceptionally capable: before signing a set of papers, he examines every page for three hours, finds nothing unclear, and concludes that Mel’s documents would withstand challenge in any court and any country. Their precision matters to Paul not only as a legal safeguard but as a way to make his intentions unmistakable.

Mel’s professional judgment is paired with personal devotion. In the three months after the accident, he visits Paul in hospital daily and continues to support him after his discharge. Paul trusts him with sensitive affairs and with the emotional strain he does not want to expose to other friends.

Support During Paul’s Recovery

As Paul struggles with the loss of independence that comes with using a wheelchair, Mel is a steady presence. He often stays beyond what duty requires, even spending weekends with Paul at the expense of time with his own wife and family. When Paul is overcome by black moods, Mel tries to bolster his courage and draw him out of them.

Paul’s privacy sharpens the importance of this support. Since his bandages were removed, he has accepted visits only from Mel and employees of the McGill businesses; he cannot bear the prospect of friends seeing his changed face and offering pity. Mel therefore becomes more than the solicitor managing paperwork: he is the trusted witness to Paul’s humiliation, anger, and despair, and the friend allowed close when Paul shuts others out.

The Dispute Over Telling Emma

Mel recognizes that Emma Harte should know how serious Paul’s condition has become. He proposes sending for her, explaining that he has also discussed the idea with Audrey. Paul refuses: he does not want Emma to see him in his injured state and fears the danger of her travelling across the world while war with Germany seems imminent.

Mel does not let Paul’s refusal settle the matter. He points out that both he and Paul have misled Emma in their letters, and that Paul used his influence to keep details of the accident out of the newspapers. Emma consequently remains unaware of the severity of Paul’s injuries. Mel presses the moral consequence of that concealment, arguing that it is time Paul wrote and told her the truth. His intervention exposes the tension between Paul’s wish to control how Emma sees him and her right to understand what has happened.

The Will and Its Delivery

At the beginning of October, Mel makes the long journey from Sydney to London to present Paul’s will to the solicitors handling the McGill legal affairs in England and Europe. The trip continues first by four-engined Qantas flying boat to Karachi, then by an English aeroplane to Britain. His journey carries the legal consequences of his work across continents at a moment when Paul can no longer manage the affairs in person.

At the will reading, Emma arrives dressed in black, accompanied by Winston Harte, Frank Harte, and Henry Rossiter. Mel tells her that Paul has appointed her executrix of his estate. Emma is taken by surprise and initially has no words; Mel’s announcement makes him the bearer of a final act of trust between Paul and Emma. His part in the story thus extends from helping Paul endure the immediate aftermath of the accident to delivering the document through which Paul’s intentions will continue to shape events after his death.