Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

From François Berthout

Sgt 811 Leslie James Higgins
26th Australian Infantry Battalion, C Company,
7th Brigade, 2nd Australian Division
 
In the Somme, once bruised, martyred by kilometers of barbed wire and mud, the blood of thousands of young men was spilled, of a whole generation who gathered around the world to come and fight on the soil of France and who shoulder to shoulder, in a united front with their brothers in arms, stood courageously and served with pride in the battlefields where they sacrificed their youth and gave their lives through the poppies but among those heroes who fought and fell for peace and freedom, thousands were buried by the mud of the Somme and have no known graves and wait patiently alongside their friends to be found to join the ranks of their comrades, their brothers under the rows of their white graves between which poppies grow. Gone but never forgotten, the names of these young men, in the stone of the walls of Villers-Bretonneux will always be honored with love and respect, with all our heart, we will keep strong and alive the history of these young boys who rest in peace in the eternal fields of poppies with the hope and the conviction that one day they will all be found but their names, their young faces, in us, will live forever.

Today, it is with the utmost respect and the deepest gratitude that I would like to honor the memory of one of these young men, one of my boys of the Somme who gave his today and his life for our tomorrow. I would like to pay a very respectful tribute to Sergeant number 811 Leslie James Higgins who fought in the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion, C Company, 7th Brigade, 2nd Australian Division, and who was killed in action 105 years ago, on November 14, 1916 at the age of 31 on the Somme front.

Leslie James Higgins was born on September 18, 1885 in Ross, Somerset, Tasmania, and was the son of William and Esther Hannah Higgins, of Ross, and had a sister, Ivy Thelma Higgins. Leslie was educated at Ross State School and before the outbreak of the war, worked on wool properties then as a labourer.

Leslie enlisted on February 20, 1915 in Ross, in the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion, C Company, as Lance Sergeant and after a period of training of four months, he embarked with his unit from Brisbane, Queensland, on board HMAT A60 Aeneas on the 29th June 1915 and sailed for Egypt where after a new period of training, he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant on August 28 and proceeded to join the MEF (Mediterranean Expeditionary Force) and was disembarked at Gallipoli on September 4.

At Gallipoli, Leslie and the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion played a purely defensive role and at various times was responsible for the defence of Courtney's and Steele's Posts, and Russell's Top. It withdrew from the peninsula on December 12.At Gallipoli,many of the 2nd Division casualties were as a result of disease which was at its worst in the hotter months because of unsanitary conditions caused by field burials and difficulties in maintaining adequate standards of field hygiene."Enteric Fever" is often referred to in soldiers records, it is interchangeable with the far more ominous-sounding "typhoid" and was an ongoing problem.

After being evacuated from Gallipoli, Leslie and the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion were sent to Egypt and were disembarked at Mudros on January 9, 1916 and two months later, on March 15, joined the BEF (British Expeditionary Force) then proceeded overseas for France.

On March 21, 1916, after a short trip without inconvenience on the Mediterranean Sea, Leslie arrived in France and was disembarked in Marseilles and three months later, on June 6, alongside the 28th Australian Infantry Battalion, the 26th Battalion mounted the first trench raid undertaken by Australian troops on the Western Front at Bois-Grenier then the following month, on July 28, the 26th Battalion was sent to the Somme and experienced its first major engagement at Pozieres where the AIF Divisions engaged (1st, 2nd and 4th) formed the right flank of the British front.

The 1st Division had cleared the pulverised remnants of the village all the while under relentless shelling. Casualties mounted at a horrifying rate.

The 2nd Division’s job was to extend the line beyond the ruins of a windmill on a hill to the west of the town. "The Windmill", or rather what was left of it, was captured by the 2nd Division on August 4,1916, and later consolidated by the 4th Division. Then, the direction of the Australian assault switched to Mouquet Farm, with the 1st Division leading once again. The aim was to outflank Thiepval, the main impediment and key objective of the British advance. Charles Bean’s quote, now inscribed on a plinth near the ruins of the Windmill, states:

"The ruin of Pozières Windmill which lies here was the centre of the struggle in this part of the Somme battlefield in July and August 1916. It was captured on August 4 by Australian troops who fell more thickly on this ridge than on any other battlefield of the first world war."

Leslie fought with admirable courage at Pozieres and on August 28, 1916, he was mentioned to the order of the 2nd Australian Division for "good and gallant conduct in connection with the recent hard fighting at Pozieres."

After Pozieres, Leslie and the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion were sent to Steenvoorde (Hauts-De-France) on September 8, 1916 where they were billeted until October 6 then were sent to Ypres, Belgium and entered in support trenches of Maple Copse and Sanctuary Wood on their left on October 13,then on October 17, were relieved by the 10th Battalion of the Northumberland Fusiliers and by the King's Own Yorkshire Light Infantry and the next day, were sent to Godewaersvelde (Hauts-De-France), joined Steenvoorde once again where they stayed until October 24, when they embarked by train to reach the Somme front and arrived in St Riquier on October 25 then walked through Ribemont, Thecourt, Longpre, Amiens, Dernancourt.

On November 2, 1916 at 10:30 pm Leslie and the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion arrived at "Carlton Camp" at Mametz Wood and on November 3, entered the front line trenches at Flers where they occupied the "Switch Trench" and the following day , received the order to be placed in support in the "Gobham Trench" during an attack on the German trenches.
By this time the Somme battlefield had been deluged with rain and the attacks were made in atrocious conditions. The attacking waves of troops were sucked down by the cloying mud and thus, unable to keep up with their creeping artillery barrage, became easy targets for German machine-gunners and riflemen.The first Flers attack was launched on November 5,1916, with the 1st Brigade advancing against trenches north of Gueudecourt, and the 7th against a complex of trenches known as "the Maze". Both attacks managed to capture some of their objectives, but were eventually forced to withdraw.

After the attack on November 5th at Flers, Leslie and the 26th Australian Infantry Battalion were relieved on November 6th by the 17th Australian Infantry Battalion at 11:15 pm and marched to the "Carlton Camp" at Mametz where the men had a hot meal but on November 14, the 26th Battalion returned to Flers where it launched a new assault on "The Maze" but the losses were catastrophic and the men had to fall back under a deluge of bullets and bombs.

Sadly, it was during this attack of November 14, 1916 that Leslie met his fate and was killed in action, he was 31. Sadly, his body was never found on the battlefield and today his name is remembered and honored with respect on the walls of the Australian National Memorial in Villers-Bretonneux, Somme, alongside the names of 10,885 Australian soldiers who fell in the Somme and northern France and who have no known graves.

Newspaper reports described Leslie as "a fine type of our Australian soldier,being of splendid built and a very manly character."

Leslie had a brother who fought courageously in the Great War, Corporal number 234 William Lewis Higgins who served in the 12th Australian Infantry Battalion, B Company and was awarded the Military Medal with the following citation: "For bravery and dash under heavy fire at Boursies on night of 9-10 April 1917, and skill in handling the light gun team." William survived the war and returned to Australia on September 23, 1918.He lived with his wife Martha Pounder and in 1929 they had a daughter, Margaret.William worked in the district as rabbit inspector and poundkeeper for the Ross council. He died peacefully in Ross, Tasmania on April 12, 1964 at the age of 73 and rests in peace in Ross Anglican Cemetery.

Leslie, William, it is in the first hours of a world at war and in the prime of your life that you responded with courage and conviction to the call of duty under the sun of Tasmania and together, side by side you proudly carried the colors of Australia to do your bit, your part in the great war alongside your comrades and your brothers in arms who left their home with confidence and determination to join the battlefields, the sand and the hills of Gallipoli which mowed down the first waves of men under turkish machine guns and which turned the sand of the peninsula into a corner of hell which took the youth of thousands of young boys who quickly became men and veterans who thought they would live the greatest adventure of their lives but discovered the horrors, the suffering and the death and after those dark first hours they left Gallipoli hoping that the future would spare them but they soon arrived in the north of France, a country they did not know but for which they did so much and the orders were soon received for them to move forward, to join the trenches, the fields of poppies and mud of the Somme they described as a slaughterhouse an endless nightmare into which their brothers and their friends fell one after the other under the shells and bullets of German rifles and machine guns which spilled death at an abominable rate and which drowned a whole generation of men in unimaginable bloodbaths in which they fought with exceptional courage in Pozieres , Mouquet Farm, Flers, Gueudecourt, Amiens, Villers-Bretonneux, Dernancourt at the cost of terrible losses.Side by side, watching over each other, they found in the mateship and the ANZAC spirit, the strength and courage to hold their positions and the front line and despite the rains of shells and lead they never took a step back and fought with an unwavering determination that nothing ever broke, they held every shell hole, every meter, every trenches with perseverance, their lines were never submerged, never taken by the German soldiers who admired and respected the tenacity and courage of the Diggers who were always on the front lines alongside their British and French brothers in arms and who together until the peace of 1918 fought and fell together and paid the supreme sacrifice of their lives for the peace and freedom in which we live thanks to them.More than a hundred years have passed and the artillery, the machine guns have given way to silence on the fields of the Somme on which stand thousands of white graves, the noises and the fury of a world at war have disappeared but the men who fought and fell here will never be forgotten, we will never forget Australia and our Diggers, these young men will always be regarded with love and gratitude as our sons over whom I will always watch with eternal gratitude and the greatest respect to put a face, a story behind their names, to tell and share the story of a whole generation of heroes who gave their today and their lives for us, so that we can have a life and a tomorrow in peace and for which they fought and fell but will live forever standing and proud among the poppies of the Somme. Thank you so much Leslie,William,for everything.At the going down of the sun and in the morning, we will remember them.