Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Lieutenant John Higson
By Mary E. Metcalfe ©
8 April 2014

What a man he was to the end
Teacher, military leader, and friend
To be shot in the head
Left grounded for “dead”

But Drs Nisbet and another
Operated right there
and then
Giving him a chance to recover.

Lt Col Aytoun was full of surprise
For on whom should he first set eyes
When disembarking from the English ship
‘Twas Lt Higson, no less, who’d not given life the slip.

However in Nineteen Hundred and Two
Lt John Higson suddenly knew
The Grim Reaper had unfortunately come
To collect his due.

To Toowong Cemetery his friends and family flocked
In mutual grief sadly locked
To pay tribute to the Boer War veteran Henry’s son
Whose life was now gallantly done.

While researching the men of the 4th Queensland Imperial Bushmen contingent from 2013 onwards, I discovered an article in The Brisbane Courier, 22 May 1901, which speaks of Lt Col Aytoun (Eytoun) returning from convalescence in England, only to be met by none other than John Higson, though the latter’s name is not mentioned in the article. Lt Higson managed to rejoin his unit by going to Capetown on the Salamis on 7 June 1901, shortly before the 4QIB was sent home, time expired. See The Sydney Morning Herald of Friday, 7 June 1901, page 6. The Queenslander of Saturday 19 October 1901 page 734 is useful too. See The Brisbane Courier 14 pp 4 and 6 for death and funeral notices.

Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. : 1866 - 1939), Saturday 2 March 1901, page 438
https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/rendition/nla.news-article21254090.txt

RETURN OF A WOUNDED OFFICER.
LIEUTENANT HIGSON, OF THE FOURTH CONTINGENT.
Lieutenant Higson, of the Fourth (Imperial Bushmen) Queensland Contingent for South Africa, has returned to Brisbane, and is in very much better health and spirits than his friends could have hoped. Lieutenant Higson bears upon both sides of his forehead painful evidences of the terrible wound he received at Zandfontein, but he feels very well, and talks of offering his services for the Sixth Contingent. From a private letter received in Brisbane some weeks ago from Captain Berry, the circumstances under which Lieutenant Higson was wounded may be gathered. Captain Berry says : —" We were camped at Zandfontein, and I had to put two pickets out, one of twenty-five men and an officer, and the other of ten men under a non-commissioned officer, with orders to double the pickets before daylight, and to send out a patrol from each at daylight. I went out with the men to double the pickets myself, and sent Lieutenant Higson out with twenty men to patrol to the front. I followed shortly after, but Lieutenant Higson came under fire first as we went up towards some rocky kopjes. I tried to get to the left, but there were too many Boers along the top to admit of our outflanking them, and the fire was pretty hot, the enemy behind the rocks and we in the grass at about 400 yards. I soon noticed one man on the right helping back a wounded man, and saw that the latter was Lieutenant Higson. A minute or two afterwards I saw another —Private Clancy—being dragged back by the arms, And two of the horses on the ground. We got to cover with the wounded about 600 yards back, and sent for the doctor. When the doctor arrived he could do nothing for Private Clancy, who was shot through the left breast, except administer an injection of morphia in the arm to relieve the pain. Poor Clancy was dead in about twenty minutes. Lieutenant Higson's wound was through the head, and the brain was coming out, and I thought there was no chance for him, but the doctor said there was the chance of one in a hundred. We put Lieutenant Higson behind a rock, and the doctor operated. The bullet had entered one side of the forehead and come out at the other, and at the point of exit the skull was all fractured. The doctor took away all the small pieces of skull and part of the brain. It will be a miracle if Lieutenant Higson lives, but at the time of writing (Commando Nek, nine days afterwards) the doctor has not returned, and our man, we suppose, is still alive." After Lieutenant Higson's wound was dressed he was taken to a farmhouse, and was for some time unconscious, but the doctor remained with him, and he rallied, and was in a little time very much improved. The Boers used to go to the house every day to ascertain if he was well enough to be taken prisoner, but when he was sufficiently recovered he was allowed to depart. Lieutenant Higson says that the people at the farmhouse treated him very well. Since his return he has been welcomed by many friends, including comrades from South Africa, most of whom had not hoped to see him again after hearing of the nature of his wound. The injury to Lieutenant Higson, which seems to be of a permanent nature, is that he has almost entirely lost his sense of smell. This, it is hoped, may be in a measure restored. The unfortunate officer bears his disfigurement and his injury with a characteristic pluck and cheerfulness, and does not seem to at all regret the sacrifice he has made for his country. Lieutenant Higson is a resident of Taringa, and is in the Department of Public Instruction. He was serving at the South Brisbane State School when he was enrolled for service with the Fourth Contingent.”

Other sources viewed include Queensland State Archives Paybooks, P.L. Murray records. Useful Trove reports include The Brisbane Courier Monday 23 April 1900 p5 re appointment of officers to the Fourth Contingent; Monday 11 February 1901 p 5, Returning Queenslanders where John Higson was invalided home; 14 and 15 November 1902 re death of Lt Higson. John was a member of the Queensland Teachers’ Volunteer Corps.

Historical death certificate purchased by me indicates that John Higson died on 13 November 1902 at Stanley Terrace, Taringa. He was a State School Teacher aged 37 years, 11 months and 17 days, born to farmer Henry Higson and his wife Ann May in Riddings, Derbyshire, England. Henry, his father, of Milton was the informant. John had lived in Australia for 30 years and 2 months. Cause of his death was (1) a bullet wound received in battle (2) acute cerebritis for 2 years and 4 days, (3) respiratory paralysis. Undertaker Alfred Cannon organised the burial in Toowong Cemetery on 14 November 1902 with the Church of England clergyman I.B. Armstrong officiating and witnesses being John Melville and Thomas H. Brown. Joseph Hughes was the District Registrar. His National Archives of Australia digitised service record can be found in Series B4418, Item ID 682864. Lest We Forget.