Charles Edwin Higgins

War Service

Charles Edwin enlisted at Worcester and joined the Royal Engineers – unfortunately precise details of his enlistment and details of his service are no longer available.
Charles Edwin died in Africa on 13 March 1917, aged 31 years. His mother died in December of the following year.
Charles Edwin now lies at rest in Morogoro Cemetery, Tanzania.
Morogoro Cemetery is 195 kilometres west of Dar-Es-Salaam in Tanzania. At the outbreak of the First World War Tanzania was part of German East Africa. Commonwealth forces invaded Tanzania in April 1915 and fought a relatively small German force, who finally surrendered on 23 November 1918, twelve days after the European armistice.
An extract from the Wakefield Express dated 31 March 1917 stated the following:
“ALTOFTS WIRELESS OPERATOR’S DEATH
Information has been received that the death from dysentery in East Africa of Sapper C E Higgins, a wireless operator in the Royal Engineers. Deceased who is 31 years of age was the son of Mr and Mrs S Higgins of Lee Brigg, Altofts.”
Also reported in The Wakefield Express on 31 March 1917:
“ALTOFTS WIRELESS OPERATOR’S DEATH
Sapper Charles Edwin Higgins, R.E., wireless operator, whose death is briefly mentioned on another page, was for 13 years a valued member of the telegraph office of the Midland Railway Company at Normanton Station. His widowed mother, with whom he resided at Lee Brigg, Altofts, has received from the Telegraph Superintendent at Derby, a very sympathetic letter, which speaks in terms of high appreciation of his services to the department. He died on March 13th, after a brief illness and had he lived until last Monday he would have been 32 years of age.”

Family Life

Charles Edwin was born in Altofts on 25 March 1885, the second son of Charles and Sophia Higgins. Charles married Sophia Hardaker at All Saints Parish Church, Leeds on 4 July 1863.
Sometime after their marriage, Charles and Sophia moved to live at 39, Prospect Row, Altofts where their first child, William Thomas, was born in 1869. By 1881 Charles’ father Charles, his wife Sophia and son William Thomas, then aged 11 years, lived in Cheesbrough Row, Altofts where their second son Charles Edwin was born on 25 March 1885. By 1891 the family had moved again to live in Brook Street, Altofts. A record of the death of Charles Higgins, aged 47, is contained in the civil registration of death index in 1888, just two years after the birth of Charles Edwin. Sophia, now aged 46, was head of the household and a widow. Her son William Thomas was 21 years old and a miner and young Charles Edwin was only 6 years old.
On 23 May 1900, at the age of 15 years, Charles Edwin commenced employment with the Midland Railway at Normanton. A year later Charles Edwin was living with his mother and his young nephew Edward, aged 6 years, at 23, George Street, Altofts. At the age of 21 years Charles Edwin was a “telegraphist” with the Midland Railway, Normanton and was still living with his mother Sophia (who was now 65 years old), although the family had moved home to 8, George Street, Altofts.
Tragedy had already struck George Street, Altofts early in the war when news of a near neighbour, Percy Osborn, was reported “killed in action” on 1 November 1914 while serving aboard HMS Monmouth.