Private, HENRY HIGGINSON 12/64. Henry’s records are a mismatch of contradictory information which make it hard to be absolutely certain, but I believe he was born in October 1891, the second of five children to Henry Higginson (1869-1933) and Mary Anne Noble (1870-1911), of 17 Spyvee Street, Hull. My trail is a broken one. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission give his age at death as being 29, but there are no Henry Higginson’s listed as being born in Hull in 1889. He was too old to have had to rely on a lie about his age to enlist so we can rule that out. Either way, our Henry joined the 12th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Sportsmen’, 3rd Hull Pals on the first day of the door being opened for enlistment. He therefore served in Egypt and on the Somme and at Oppy Wood before being transferred to the 11th when the battalions merged in February 1918. Henry Higginson survived the first bloody weeks of the German Spring Offensive, but his luck ran out a few short weeks later. He died of wounds likely sustained during the attack on enemy positions around La Becque farm on 28th June 1918 and is buried in Cinq Rues British Cemetery.
His name was recorded on the St Mark Street WW1 Memorial, Hull, with his younger brother, Private, Albert Higginson, 19431, 11th East Yorkshire regiment, killed in action, on 25/04/1918, aged 19. Their parents had lost two son within two months of 1918.
