L/12280 Pte Albert Wiggins, 3rd Bn, Middx Regt

L/12280 Private Albert Wiggins of the 3rd Battalion, Middlesex Regiment, was killed in action on the 15th February 1915. He was one of 216 British Army soldiers to die on this date and one of 63 Middlesex Regiment men.

Albert was born in Willesden and joined the army at Mill Hill on the 7th September 1908. He was 20 years and one month old and was working as a carman. His surviving attestation papers show that he initially joined the Royal Irish Regiment and then transferred to The Middlesex Regiment on the 23rd September. Albert was five feet, four inches tall, had a fresh complexion, brown eyes and light brown hair.

Initially attached to the 6th (Extra Reserve) Battalion, Albert was posted to the 4th Battalion on the 28th September 1908 and then to the 3rd Battalion on the 1st October 1909. The same day he sailed for Singapore and would remain there until December 1910 when he moved west into India. He left for India on the 19th December 1910 and would remain there until the 18th November 1914 when he sailed for the UK. He was in England for a few months until he sailed again, this time for France, arriving there on the 18th January 1915.

Albert's papers record his next of kin as his parents: Henry and Lydia Wiggins of 5 Junction Terrace, Harlesden. It is also noted that he had three older brothers: Ernest, Charles and William; and two younger brothers: John and Henry.

A note on Albert's file states that he was killed in action between the 12th and 15th February 1915, but that his presumed date of death was the 15th. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Menin Gate at Ypres.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.

Sources:

Ancestry.co.uk (MIC)
Army Service Numbers 1881-1918
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in The Great War