Article Updated (15 August 2026):
[Disclosure: In my past, I worked at a local Suicide Prevention Network, so I found this especially troubling/fucked up]. Apparently the word suicide is taboo in the UK. I had no idea. The word can’t even be spoken or printed apparently. Therefore, if Harrison died by suicide in the River Cam, that would never be said or printed. It has to be kept “hush, hush.” So silly. So it’s just implied by using the code language “nothing suspicious found?” (Roll eyes/sigh). How did people get this far? I thought we were all adults here, no? Apparently not. Another example of this insanity is that Jason Arday, a former/resigned Cambridge University professor accused of “widely publicised allegations that he plagiarised and falsified parts of his research, as well as claims of fabrication in his autobiographical accounts. He was found dead at his home in South London on 14 August 2026, nine days after his resignation.” His death is described in the same way as Harrison’s: Found dead but “nothing suspicious found.” Translation: Suicide. So that is code language for: He took his own life or he died by suicide, because one can’t or is not supposed to say the taboo “s” word (suicide) in the UK. That is fucked up. Strange. Weird. I didn’t know that was the case in the UK. And this taboo is not new. Where does one begin with this insanity? And what nut started this insane “tradition?” I found an article from 2014 addressing this topic:
I Didn’t Realise the Word ‘Suicide’ Was so Taboo in the UK
Also:
Breaking the taboo of suicide – we need to talk
End of Update
This is a strange one and apparently no one wants to talk about what really happened.
The authorities found Harrison’s body the next morning in the river. He died 7 June 2026 but his funeral wasn’t held in the King’s College Chapel until almost 4 weeks later on 3 July 2026.
How did he do that?
“Emergency services raced to the scene the following morning after a report was received of a body in the water at an area known as the Backs, as several colleges back onto the river there. He was pulled from the shallow river, which is usually packed with punts during the day, but was declared dead at the scene.”
I asked: How does one accidentally fall into this particular mostly shallow river? And why the snap judgment from the emergency services/authorities that he fell into the river and that “nothing suspicious is suspected?” (read down the page).
According to AI:
Quote: It is generally not easy to accidentally fall into the River Cam by King’s College Bridge. The banks along The Backs are well-defined, the paved paths are separated from the water, and the commercial flat-bottomed punts are wide and stable.
Controlled Banks: The edges near the college grounds feature structured stone walls or flat lawns rather than slippery, unexpected drop-offs.
End Quote from AI
So sorry to hear about the unexpected and very mysterious death of musician Harrison Cole. He was 25 at the time of his death (June 2026) and held the position of Assisting Organist at the renowned King’s College, Cambridge (Oxbridge).
“Nothing suspicious is suspected” is what I’ve read in each article about this. Well, if “nothing suspicious is suspected,” why hasn’t anyone said what happened to Harrison, in detail? It all seems very hush-hush.
My choral friend said, “Why doesn’t Luke, his partner, say something? You’d think that he would make a statement explaining where he himself was at the time and how Harrison happened to get into the river and how he drowned, to clear things up, rather than having this ongoing, dangling mystery.
On one site, someone wrote that “apparently he committed suicide.” When “nothing suspicious is suspected,” suicide can be the case from my research.
Someone asked “how did this happen?” That person was heavily attacked just for writing that and wanting to know some details. What’s wrong with people wanting to know how this esteemed musician — who had accomplished so much and was at the top of his field — could have drowned in the river outside the King’s College Chapel and how he got in the river in the first place? What’s wrong with people wanting to know that? What is wrong with people? Have they “all” gone insane? They have so many hangups.
Unfortunately, many people brainwashed in outdated traditions can’t talk about death at all. There’s a whole crowd like that. And they refuse to understand that death is part of life. So there is no reason what-so-ever why people should not talk about why and how someone died. Period.
I will talk about it, period. I think about Margaret Hillis, Robert Shaw, Dr. Paul Traver, Norman Scribner and other stellar Chorus Directors who have died, and of course other outstanding musicians, including Harrison. I also think about the many talented actors of the past generation who died of cancer of one type or another from tobacco smoking. What a waste. It starts to bring tears to my eyes. They are all gone forever. That is hard to think about; I try not to think about that. I think death is a complete waste of a human being, and I don’t believe in all that scare-tactic heaven and hell nonsense. I think that when one dies it’s like being under permanent general anesthesia. That’s it. Or as I’ve heard some people refer to death, “It’s lights out.” I know many people say about the deceased person, “He’s/She’s gone to be with the Lord.” Yeah right. Well don’t count on it! And no, that’s not the case at all — it’s just that most people want to believe that as a way of comforting their grief — but the fact is we haven’t had Judgment Day yet (where the brass/the trumpets sound and all…not that we ever will have Judgment Day). Judgment Day has to come first before anyone goes to heaven or hell. So there’s a big hole in one’s theology regarding death and going to heaven or hell. I remember getting into an argument with my dad over this. I challenged him on Judgment Day and all he could say was, “Well you’re right, they do say that.” I know they do. So he asked me, “So you think [name of person] is just lying up there in the ground?” I said: Yes. Where do you think [name of person] is, in some holding tank with billions of other people waiting for Judgment Day to arrive? He couldn’t answer the question.
In Harrison’s case, the coroner has offered no details of how he died. His obituary reads that “He died suddenly.” How? How did he get in the Cam River (shown below). Was he thrown off that cement bridge down there by one of his friends playing around or what?
Or was his death by suicide? Did he jump off that bridge and — being a shallow river — broke his back, neck or his legs and (if he couldn’t walk) drowned that way. I suppose that could explain how “he died suddenly.”
My choral friend brought this up: Was this a hate crime? Was Harrison drowned/killed because he was queer?
From AI: “The University of Cambridge is generally very queer-friendly, boasting a large and visible queer student population, active advocacy groups, and supportive institutional policies, though individual experiences across its historic collegiate system can still vary… Student surveys and demographic snapshots indicate a remarkably high percentage of queer and non-heterosexual students relative to national averages.”
I just think this is all so very tragic for Harrison himself, his mother and father, his brother Josh, and his partner Luke. If it were a suicide, were there no visible or obvious signs that his family noticed? Maybe he and Luke were having problems? — Luke wasn’t with Harrison at the time? — or he and his other family members?, and Harrison felt there was no way out, were it a suicide. I hadn’t considered it might be a suicide, but since someone mentioned it back in June at the time of his death, that makes more sense at this point. Even if one is at the top of their field, that doesn’t mean that one can’t be depressed and/or suicidal, and the depression may have nothing to do with one’s career.
About the Cam River: AI says that this mostly shallow river is approximately 91cm-122cm deep / 3-4 feet deep or 304cm / 10 feet at its deepest but that is only in spots in the mud areas of the river. But one can drown in very shallow water, especially if one can’t walk, as I mentioned above.
The story goes that he drowned in what’s known as “The Backs” of the River Cam (shown above) — which is in back of some of the Colleges of Cambridge University — which runs in back of the King’s College Chapel shown over on the right in the above image, where he was Assisting Organist.
Reading his bio, at age 25, Harrison had already accomplished a lot in the Church of England, including serving as Organ Scholar at Wells Cathedral (Anglican) and previously Organ Scholar at Trinity College Cambridge. He was also Assistant Organist at Gonville and Caius College. He spent three years as a student at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music. He was planning to go to St. Michael’s Cornhill in London and begin focusing on freelancing. I assume he wasn’t interested in a permanent position as a parish, chapel or Cathedral Organist or Choirmaster.
Some commenters wrote that they’d never heard of Harrison. Well, that’s their problem. That’s not surprising though. I doubt that most people know the names of the Organist and Choirmaster at their church — and they don’t care! — even if their names and degrees (if they have degrees) are printed on the service leaflet. That’s because many (most?) people don’t care about the music, in part, because they don’t know anything about music and they’re there for what they call “the spoken word.” I had a relative like that. She complained about me being all into the music. My choral friend told her: Well he’s a Conservatory-trained musician (she found that to be intimidating she said) and his experience is in the Anglican Church. She said, “But he should be into the spoken word — just because she was into it — that’s what it’s all about. He told her: Not to him it’s not. She claimed to be Episcopalian, but her attitude about “the spoken word” is right out of the Roman Catholic Church, from my experience. She had no ear for music. She could hear the same piece over and over and not know it was the same piece being played or performed over and over. Only a small group of people would have heard of Harrison Cole. It’s a special niche.
Well, there’s a lot about this story that is being deliberately left out. Excluding suicide, how did Harrison get into the shallow river to begin with at night. I read he was leaving an event on campus at the end of term. Was he all there mentally? Was he sober or intoxicated at the time?
From my research with AI, it is not easy to “accidentally fall” into the River Cam, and then drown. Looking at the image above, that makes sense, because it’s a rather shallow river. Was he with anyone at the time? If so, what did they do?
I have found no report or response from the coroner online, probably from the family’s request.
Again, in the online comment responses to his death, no one is questioning anything (other than that one person I mentioned who got reprimanded for doing so), such as how he happened to get in this shallow river to begin with and how he happened to “die suddenly” and whether he was alone or with other people? Apparently most people don’t want to know how he died, which I find to be damn odd. If it were a relative, wouldn’t they want to know how their relative died? Or would they prefer to live in Denial about that too? “Don’t tell me, I don’t want to know!”
As for his music, one thing Harrison is being remembered for is his organ accompaniment for The Trinity Chapel Choir’s superb performance of the Duruflé – Requiem (below). He was the Senior Organ Scholar at Trinity College Chapel at the time. Here is a Tribute to Harrison by the Former Director of Music, Stephen Layton.
The Harrison Cole Fund
The Harrison Cole Fund has been established in memory of the late Harrison Cole, Assisting Organist at King’s College, to help aspiring musicians who have ambition to come to Cambridge in the future.