#1762 Corporal Henry Arthur Biggs
3RD RIFLE BRIGADE
HENRY BIGGS WAS A LONG-SERVING regular who had seen plenty of the war before the onset of the Battle of the Somme. From Plaistow, East London, he had originally been a seaman before enlisting in the Rifle Brigade at the age of 18. His service had taken him throughout the Empire. A rowdy recruit in his early days in Egypt, Henry was often confined to barracks for minor offences: playing football when forbidden in Egypt, losing his tartan trousers and allowing his bedding to become infested with vermin. By the time that the Great War was declared though, Henry was in his mid-twenties and had settled down to become a disciplined and well thought of soldier, commended for his good conduct. He had been serving for some time with the 4th Battalion of his regiment and was in India in August 1914. It sailed from Bombay in October and was on the Western Front by Christmas, where the miserable winter weather affected the rank and file forced to live in the trenches. Henry had to be admitted to hospital in January 1915 with frostbite, returning in time to receive a gunshot wound to the thigh in the spring. He was evacuated home, found time to get married while he recovered and when he sailed for France in February 1916 he joined the 3rd Rifle Brigade, his original unit having departed for Salonika.
On 16th August, Henry and his battalion relieved men of the Royal Fusiliers in the Guillemont sector ready for the strong assault of 18th August. The 3rd Rifle Brigade was ordered to attack two lines of enemy trenches on its front. The preceding artillery barrage was accurate and effective, and when Henry and the rest moved off they managed to stay right up close against the protective barrage and completely surprised the enemy. They took seventy prisoners, including an officer, and a pile of ‘booty’, among which was two machine guns. Some of the enemy troops actually came out to greet them, and were so enthusiastic to be captured and away from the Somme that they willingly went to the rear to be processed without even needing an escort.
The effects of the Battle of the Somme on the high street in Guillemont. (Authors’ collection)
Going over ground that had come to haunt men such as the Footballer’s Battalion just two weeks earlier, the likes of Henry Biggs found that Machine Gun House fell to them, and that Z-Z Trench was a far simpler objective than had been feared after previous experience. Sending in higher numbers of troops and planning for possible eventualities paid dividends, as did extensive use of smoke bombs and grenades to clear dugouts, and Lewis guns were thrown up in front to play on shell holes as the enemy attempted to use them for cover in order to retreat. The ground north of Guillemont was in British hands.
By 19th August the situation for Henry Biggs and his companions had returned to normal, but on the 20th the enemy kept up persistent shelling, with a focus on the new British positions. Plans were now fully under way for a major new offensive in the middle of September. One of the objectives that had been designated as essential before this could take place was, of course, Guillemont. Consequently, on 21st August Henry Biggs and the rest of the 3rd Rifle Brigade were ordered to help secure the Western side of the village.
That morning, parties of both Henry’s battalion and men of The Buffs occupied most of Z-Z Trench leading down to Guillemont and went forward under a heavy barrage towards the village. Under a smoke screen discharged by the neighbouring division to cover his flank, Henry advanced from the station. The attack was failing. The Rifle Brigade attackers were met by accurate fire from Wuttemberg troops opposite and could not hold their position. When they fell back and were relieved, Henry was not among their number.
The battalion’s efforts since the 18th had caused some 300 casualties. Henry Biggs had left his wife, Hannah, pregnant when he returned to the front in February 1916. She had given birth on 25th July, the day after Henry reached the Somme with his battalion. Their daughter, Joan, was just over three weeks old when he was killed. Twenty-eight-year-old Henry, who had never laid eyes on his little girl, was originally buried near where he fell. When the battlefield was cleared after the war he was exhumed and finally laid to rest at Delville Wood Cemetery, plot XXI.G.9.