On 5 September 1945, just as the war had ended, Harrison died suddenly of hypertensive cerebrovascular disease at his home in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton; he was survived by his wife and daughter, and cremated.
The Minister for Air, Arthur Drakeford, commented that "all members of the service, and, indeed, all Australians interested in aviation, must feel his loss as the snapping of one of the last links with the pioneer days of flying".
One of the original Deperdussins that Harrison ordered and helped assemble for the Central Flying School in 1914 later went on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.

Despite his accomplishments in overseeing the training of every student pilot who served in the Australian Flying Corps during World War I, Eric Harrison received no decorations or other official recognition, prompting Group Captain Mark Lax, at the 1999 RAAF History Conference, to describe him as "perhaps the unluckiest of the entire AFC ... an unsung hero".
He was nonetheless generally considered to be the "Father of the RAAF" until the title eventually settled on Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams.
Harrison's early technical expertise, long association with Australian military aviation as a founder member of the AFC and the RAAF, and "more assertive" personality tended to overshadow the contributions of Henry Petre, whom historian Douglas Gillison considered "equally entitled" to such an accolade.
Reviewing the contributions of Petre and Harrison in his volume of The Australian Centenary History of Defence in 2001, Alan Stephens concluded that "perhaps any judgement would not only be moot but also gratuitous, as by circumstance and achievement both men properly belong in the pantheon of the RAAF".
On 5 September 1945, just as the war had ended, Harrison died suddenly of hypertensive cerebrovascular disease at his home in the Melbourne suburb of Brighton; he was survived by his wife and daughter, and cremated. The Minister for Air, Arthur Drakeford, commented that "all members of the service, and, indeed, all Australians interested in aviation, must feel his loss as the snapping of one of the last links with the pioneer days of flying". One of the original Deperdussins that Harrison ordered and helped assemble for the Central Flying School in 1914 later went on display at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra.
Despite his accomplishments in overseeing the training of every student pilot who served in the Australian Flying Corps during World War I, Eric Harrison received no decorations or other official recognition, prompting Group Captain Mark Lax, at the 1999 RAAF History Conference, to describe him as "perhaps the unluckiest of the entire AFC ... an unsung hero". He was nonetheless generally considered to be the "Father of the RAAF" until the title eventually settled on Air Marshal Sir Richard Williams. Harrison's early technical expertise, long association with Australian military aviation as a founder member of the AFC and the RAAF, and "more assertive" personality tended to overshadow the contributions of Henry Petre, whom historian Douglas Gillison considered "equally entitled" to such an accolade. Reviewing the contributions of Petre and Harrison in his volume of The Australian Centenary History of Defence in 2001, Alan Stephens concluded that "perhaps any judgement would not only be moot but also gratuitous, as by circumstance and achievement both men properly belong in the pantheon of the RAAF".
Eric Harrison (RAAF officer)