Cyril Ernest Harrison

Sir Cyril Ernest Harrison (14 December 1901, Sileby, Leicestershire – 15 March 1980, Wilmslow, Cheshire) was a cotton industrialist. He was President of the Federation of British Industry and Confederation of British Industry during the 1950s and 1960s following his work as Managing Director at English Calico.

Career At the age of 16 in 1917 he was an office boy at Perseverance Mill in Padiham, then trained as a weaver, and then became a fabric dealer on the Manchester Cotton Exchange. With a friend he then set up a fabric merchanting business, C E Harrison & Co, in 1928. He later qualified as a fellow of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries.

Competition returned in the 1950s from countries with lower labour costs and affected ESC's profits in spite of modernisation. In 1968, ESC merged with the Calico Printers' Association, a dominant textile firm, and adopted the name English Calico. and in the same year was conferred an honorary master's degree by Manchester University. From 1961 to 1963 was on the grand council of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI). He was knighted for services to industry in 1963.

He was active in the Cotton Board, which represented Lancashire's interests.