Name
Matthew Bruce Higgins
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
20/12/1940
34
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Lieutenant
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
H.M. Trawler Courtier.
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
MILFORD HAVEN CEMETERY
Sec. E. Grave 320.
United Kingdom
Headstone Inscription
UNTIL THE DAY BREAK AND THE SHADOWS FLEE AWAY
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, St. John's War Memorial, St. Mary's Church, Hitchin, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
Before the war he had worked for Lloyds Bank and later as a printer. He was a member of the Hitchin Conservative Association and also helped to organise the Priory Fetes. He joined up in September 1940 and was granted a commission.
At the time of his death he was serving with RM. Trawler Courtier. An accident occurred in a dockyard in South Wales and his funeral took place with full Naval Honours on the 24th December 1940. Members of his ship carried the coffin and fellow officers were pallbearers. He was buried in Grave SECE 320, Milford Haven Cemetery, Pembrokeshire.
He had been married for nine years, and he left a wife and two young children. His home was at ‘Southlands’ in Hitchin. Later his widow, Josceline Higgins, Lived in Etchingham in Sussex. He was the son of Alfred Herbert and Winifred Alice Higgins. His mother lived in Devonshire, and this was her second son to be killed on naval service. The other son was Roland Higgins, and he had been killed before the outbreak of war.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Herts & Beds Express dated 28th December 1940
