Gunner 79386 "X" 1st Trench Mortar Battery, Royal Field Artillery
Died 3 September 1916 aged 26
Remembered on Ash War Memorial
Buried in Millencourt Communal Cemetery Extension, Somme, where his headstone is inscribed “In loving memory of our dear son. Gone but not forgotten.”
Remembered on the Memorial to the Men of Ash Vale in St Mary’s Church
Remembered on the gravestone of his parents in Ash Cemetery (J730): "Killed in action 1916"

Charles Higgs was born in 1889 in London, the son of Charles and Flora Higgs.

The 1901 census for Ash records that Charles Higgs was an insurance agent, and the family lived at 4 Heather Cottages, Frimley Road, Ash. Charles was 11 and he had four sisters, Nelly 8, Flora 6, Elsie 4 and Kathleen 2. Another sister, Gladys, was born in 1901, and his three youngest sisters all attended Ash Common School. In 1911 Charles’s father was working as a cab driver.

Charles Higgs enlisted at Guildford 19 January 1915. He was a groom and was 5 feet 7½ inches tall and weighed 126 lbs. He served in France and earned the 1914/15 Star.

The form submitted to the War Memorial committee states that Charles Higgs served for 1 year and 10 months and was killed by gas and wounds.