Pte F Huggins

 

By the time he enlisted Frederick Huggins was living in Wokingham and married to Helen but the Rector notes in the parish magazine for September 1917 that he was listed as “missing”.

 

Frederick was the son of Thomas, a cattleman, and Emily Huggins and was born at Yattendon in 1891 but by 1901 the family had moved to 37 Wickcroft Cottages, where his parents were still living in 1917. He served with 1st Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment, though it is not known when he joined. Although the Rector reports him missing in September he was later confirmed as killed in action on 3 May 1917. After an attack at Oppy Wood on 29 April 1917, 1st Battalion was left with only enough men to form two companies of 4 officers and 100 men each and were merged with 23rd Royal Fusiliers as a composite battalion. After a second action at Oppy Wood on 3 May the battalion was down to only two officers and 94 other ranks. It must have been during this action that Frederick Huggins was killed.

 

Having no known grave he is commemorated on the Arras Memorial and also on the headstone of the grave of his mother and father in the churchyard at Englefield.