Composer of NDP songs in serious accident on National Day

The man who composed Singapore’s first three National Day theme songs was severely injured in an accident at his home in Canada soon after watching this year’s parade live.

Mr Hugh Harrison’s arm was caught in the propeller of a motorised paraglider.

It was feared at first that the limb would have to be amputated, but doctors were working on reconstructive procedures, Today reported.

Mr Harrison, 71, had watched Singapore’s National Day Parade live, though it was in the early hours of Aug 9 in Fort McMurray, a town in Canada’s Alberta province.

He watched Third Warrant Officer Jeffrey Heng make a hard landing during the Red Lions parachuting display at the parade.

“I saw the unfortunate parachutist hit the ground hard. (Accidents) happen even to the most experienced,” the report quoted Mr Harrison as saying.

He was about to have his own.

Later that morning he planned to go paragliding and was assembling the motor in his driveway. When he started it up, it pitched forward and hit his right arm.

“Blood was just gushing out like the Black Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” he said, referring to a scene in the 1975 British comedy film.

“There was meat and bones all over my driveway. I had to gather up bits of arm and turn the engine off.”

The only other person at home then was his 20-year-old son Charlie, who has autism, and couldn’t immediately get help from the emergency services.

When neighbours arrived, Mr Harrison was still standing, in the hallway of the house, trying to stem the blood with paper towels.

He was rushed to a regional health centre soon afterwards, and then flown to a hospital in the city of Edmonton 400km south.

He also sustained minor abdominal injuries but was otherwise in good shape, and was hopeful that with reconstructive surgery, he would not totally lose the arm.

Mr Harrison is an experienced paraglider, having flown in various places from 1997. But he had not flown such a craft since 2003. The last time was in Uganda, where he said he narrowly escaped harm while flying dangerously low over a crocodile-infested area.

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He has lived in many countries, and was working for advertising firm McCann Erickson here when he composed the National Day songs, Stand Up for Singapore (1984 and 1985), Count on Me, Singapore (1986) and We are Singapore (1987 and 1988).

Mr Harrison left Singapore in 1991. He moved back to Canada in 2012, and has been living there since, with his Thai wife and their two children.

Last year, Indian musician Joseph Mendoza claimed he had composed a variation of Count on Me, Singapore. But he later withdrew the claim.

Today also spoke to Mr Harrison’s wife Loy, who was in Fort McMurray with Charlie and their  23-year-old daughter.

She recalled how calm Mr Harrison was. “Charlie said he was flustered and giving wrong directions to the emergency services, but his father was able to correct him and provide the right information,” Mrs Harrison was quoted as saying.