Higgins, DS

Captain Douglas Stanley Higgins

Douglas was born on March 31st 1880, the second son of George Higgins, one of the managers of Jones & Higgins Ltd, a drapers and department store in Peckham, and his wife, Mary. He joined Dulwich at the beginning of 1891, just over a year after his elder brother, George, had come to the College. Douglas went on to be a pupil for the next four and a half years, leaving in the summer of 1895, from the Upper 5th to continue his studies at Wiesbaden in Germany. After returning to England he spent some time in the city, before taking over from his father as Director and General Manager of Jones & Higgins Ltd.
In December 1914 Douglas enlisted as a member of the Cambridge O.T.C., being granted his commission the following February as a Lieutenant in the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. That December he went over to France for the first time, but was wounded a month later, in January 1916, at Elverdinghe near the Ypres salient, and as a result invalided home. After nearly nine months of recovery he returned to France that September and, the following March, was promoted to Captain. Less than a month later, on April 9th 1917, he was killed whilst leading his men in an attack on Telegraph Hill, near Arras. He was survived by his widow, Mona, and their four children.