Hallifax, EP
(1894 - 1916)
Key Facts
DATE OF BIRTH:
25th November 1894
YEARS ATTENDED THE COLLEGE:
1906 - 1912
HOME ADDRESS WHEN AT THE COLLEGE:
10 Underhill Road, East Dulwich
REGIMENT
Royal Engineers
FINAL RANK:
Corporal
DATE OF DEATH:
24th September 1916
AGE AT DEATH:
21
WHERE HE DIED (or was wounded)
Somme, Bouleaux Wood
LOCATION OF GRAVE OR MEMORIAL:
Combles Communal Cemetery Extension. VI G 1
Corporal Eric Philip Hallifax
Born on November 25th 1894 in Penang in modern day Malaysia, Eric was the youngest of four surviving children of James Hallifax, who was then President of the Municipal Commission of Penang, and his wife, Florence. After first coming to England he attended a small day school in Walmer, before starting at Dulwich in 1906, alongside his elder brother, Wilfred. After having been a pupil for six years, Eric left in the spring of 1912, whilst a member of the Engineering Remove, and went on to spend the next two years at the City and Guilds’ Engineering College, with the intention of qualifying as an electrical engineer.
In the summer of 1914 he had joined the military, as a trooper in King Edward’s Horse, and was in camp with them when the war was declared that August. Shortly after going over to France with his unit for the first time in April 1915, Eric volunteered for the Special Brigade of the Royal Engineers, in which he was appointed Corporal. With his new unit he was involved in the first British use of gas, at Loos that September, before subsequently being attached to the Trench Mortar Corps. He was serving near Bouleaux Wood, on the Somme, when, on September 24th 1916, he was killed in action.
