| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Ernest Higgens, originally from Beverley but resident in Leeds, served as a Private, then Lance-Corporal, in the 7th Battalion of the Seaforth Highlanders ( part of 26th Infantry Brigade, 9th (Scottish) Division) between 1916 and 1918. He was wounded, possibly in the action of 11 Nov 1916 NW of Eaucourt L’Abbaye. His regiment later served in Belgium, east of Ypres. The Beverley Guardian of 6 Apr 1918 noted that Ernest had been wounded and badly gassed and was evacuated to the Duchess of Connaught’s Canadian Hospital, Taplow, Berkshire. On 21 Mar 1918 the 7th Seaforth’s War Diary describes a massive and sudden German attack using phosgene gas; it was probably in this action and retreat that Ernest was wounded.
Ernest and his twin, Gerty, were born the 7 Sep 1882 in Beverley and baptised on the 28th at St Mary’s Church. Their parents were Ada (nee Dawson) of Beverley and Edwin Reynolds Higgens, originally from London, a clerk in Hull. They already had two children, Frances and Thomas, when Edwin was sentenced to 16 months in Wakefield Prison by York Assizes for “the theft of a commercial bill of exchange”. He had been acquitted of embezzlement in 1879. Edwin soon left the family and cannot be traced thereafter. Ada brought up her young family at her parents’ house on Ladygate, next to the Dog and Duck public house.
Ada and her sister Alice were dressmakers and costumiers and Ernest went into the clothing trade. In 1901 he was employed in Beverley as a “hosier’s shopman” but later moved to Leicester: in 1911 he was a “hatter’s assistant”. He married Henrietta Sarson and they had three children, Reginald born 1906, George born 1912 and Norman born 1913. The latter was born in Leeds where the couple had moved to. Twin Gerty was by then working as a waitress in Leeds.
Ernest died the 28 Dec 1946.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |