LEATHERHEAD WAR MEMORIALS - WWI
Private Edwin Robert Walter Huggett
1st/9th Bn Middlesex Regiment
Taken, Not Given, Liam Sumption, L&DLHS
Pte
Edwin R Huggett
9th Middlesex Regt
Baghdad
Nov 17 1918
The 9th. Bn. Middlesex Regiment had proceeded to India in 1914 following
the outbreak of war.
On 24th November 1917, it arrived in Mesopotamia as part of 53 Indian
Brigade. (1)
According to the Parish magazine of St Mary and St Nicholas, Leatherhead,
issue of January 1919, Edwin Huggett died of malaria on the date and in
the place given on the War Memorial. (2)
Notes on sources
1. File W095 – Supplementary Finding Aids for War Diaries – Public Record
Office, Kew, Richmond.
2. Parish magazine of St Mary and St Nicholas, Leatherhead, issue of
January 1919.
Stop press
Strangely enough Edwin Huggett is not listed in Soldiers who Died in
the Great War under the Middlesex Regiment, and certainly not the
1st/9th Bn.
However, Graves of the British Empire published by the Imperial
War Graves Commission confirms 1st/9th Middlesex Regiment, No.57065:
buried in Plot XI H1, Baghdad North Gate War Cemetery.
Further research
Private
HUGGETT, E R
Service Number 57065
Died 17/11/1918
1st/9th Bn. Middlesex Regiment
Buried at BAGHDAD
(NORTH GATE) WAR CEMETERY
Location: Iraq
Cemetery/memorial reference: XI. H. 1.
According to the Surrey in the Great War website
Edwin originally joined the Queen's (Royal West Surrey) Regiment with
service number 60370 and was transferred to The Middlesex Regiment,
service number G/57065.
Dorking and Leatherhead Advertiser
Saturday 7 December 1918
ROLL OF HONOUR.
HUGGETT — On November 17th, of malaria, in Mesopotamia, Pte. Edwin R.
Huggett, Middlesex Regt., of Leatherhead, age 32.
January 1919 Leatherhead Parish Magazine
FOR KING AND COUNTRY.
....
The following have given their lives for the Cause:—
Pte. E. R. Huggett, Middlesex Regt, died of Malaria in Mesopotamia, Nov.
17th, 1918.
...
Edwin died 6 days after the
Armistice on 11 November 1918, for his family the news must have been
grief snatched from joy.
His life
Edwin Huggett was born on 15 June 1886 and baptised on 31 October 1886 at
St Nicholas, Sutton, Surrey. He was a Carpenter & Cabinet Maker.
His father was Edwin James Huggett, birth registered September 1865,
Sutton, Surrey, a son of George William Huggett (1832-1911) and Elizabeth
Chapman (1831-1931). He was a Carpenter & Joiner.
His mother was Alice Seal Adams born about 1864, Gravesend, Kent, a
daughter of Robert Mowbray Adams.
They were married at the Parish Church, Sutton, Surrey on 7 November 1887:
Edwin James Huggett, 20 [but birth
registered 1865], Bachelor, Carpenter, resident Sutton: Father -
George Huggett, Carpenter
Alice Seal Adams, 23, Spinster, resident Sutton: Father - Robert Mowbray
Adams, Ships Store Dealer
Edwin's siblings were: Annie Louisa b 1888, Alice Winifred b 1891, William
b 1892, Florence Ethel b 1896, and Henry James b 1903.
He lived with his family at:
Victoria Road, Westcott, Dorking, Surrey (1891 Census)
Alley Fields, Westcott, Dorking, Surrey (1901 Census)
He married Nellie Sylvia Cooke in 1910, registered in Q2 at Epsom, Surrey.
She was born in Leatherhead in 1885, a daughter of Alfred Cooke
(1862-1946) and Mary Jane Lansdell (1863-1950).
They lived in Church Street, Leatherhead.
It appears that they did not have any children.
After WW1
Edwin's widow Nellie did not remarry. In the 1939 England & Wales
Register she was at 19 The Crescent, Leatherhead, doing work in the WVS
Canteen and looking after her mother Mary Cooke who ran a Domestic Agency.
Nellie died, still at 19 The Crescent, on 17 June 1953 at The Cottage
Hospital, Leatherhead.
His father Edwin James Huggett died in June 1939 and Alice his mother died
in 1946.
Edwin Huggett is remembered on these memorials
Leatherhead Town Memorial
Leatherhead RBL Roll of
Honour, Leatherhead Parish Church
Ladies War Shrine, Leatherhead Parish
Church
Church Lads Brigade Memorial
Tryptich, All Saints Leatherhead
Surrey
in the Great War
the website editor
would like to add further information on this casualty
e.g. a photo of him, and of any recollections within his family
last updated 9 Aug 20: 25 Sep 20