She trained as a teacher with the Scottish Education Department and taught at Buckie, Banffshire, Scotland, then from 1918 at the Ayr Academy.
[2] Another brother, John Brocas Harris ( –1967) had earlier emigrated to South Australia, served at Gallipoli with the Army Medical Corps and was badly wounded.
In 1922 she accepted a position with the SA School of Arts and Crafts, where she was to teach for 30 years in a wide range of mediums: oil and watercolor, lino and woodblock printing, tapestry and embroidery.
Her bequest of this home to the Town of Walkerville was declined, but the Council did accept the many works of art, including sculptures by her friend Ola Cohn.
Harris was a prolific writer; her Art, the Torch of Life was published by Rigby, Ltd. in 1946[7] and much else is held by the State Library of South Australia in manuscript or typescript form.