Major Charles Gilbert Dingwall HUGGINS
2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders

Date of birth: 6th August 1882
Date of death: 15th March 1965

Died aged 82
Unknown
Charles Gilbert Dingwall Huggins was born at Whyteleafe in Surrey on the 6th of August 1882 the eldest son of Charles Lang Huggins JP, a stockbroker, and Agnes Maud (nee Dingwall) Huggins of Hadlow Grange, Hadlow Down near Uckfield in Sussex.

Hazelwood School until December 1895. When he left, the school magazine wrote: - "....will make his mark at Wellington in the world of natural history. He is never so happy as when his pockets are crawling with all manner of creeping things innumerable: and will one day be an exhibitor of performing fleas. Of all boys we have ever known, we should be safest in saying that he has not, and could not have, a single enemy."

He went on to Wellington College where he was in Mr. Brougham's House from January 1896 to 1900.

He was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 4th Battalion Royal Irish Rifles (Militia) and was promoted to Lieutenant on the 12th of December 1900. He transferred to the Gordon Highlanders with the rank of Lieutenant on the 14th of September 1901 and saw action in the South African War where he was awarded the Queen's Medal with two clasps. He was promoted to Lieutenant on the 1st of January 1906 and to Captain on the 26th of September 1910.

He was a Freemason and was admitted as a member of the London Hospital Lodge on the 4th of May 1904. He became a member of the Lodge of Harmony at Cawnpore on the 6th of November 1911.

He was married to Gwendolen Isla (nee Brougham) on the 1st of February 1913 at St Mary's Church Beddington in Surrey. They had a son, Ulric Gilbert Brougham Lang, born on the 6th of November 1913.

On the outbreak of war his battalion was at Alexandria and they sailed for home arriving at Southampton on the 1st of October 1914. They embarked for Belgium at Southampton on the 5th of October landing at Zeebrugge on the 7th, although Charles Huggins had gone ahead with the Battalion Quartermaster Sergeant on another ship. He was wounded on the 16th of November 1914 while the battalion was holding trenches at Sailly near the River Lys. He was promoted to Major on the 5th of January 1916 and served in the War Office from 1915 to 1918 as a Deputy Assistant Adjutant General and as Director of Prisoners of War.

He served as an Adjutant in the Territorial Army from 1920 to 1923.

He was appointed as second in command of the Gordon Highlanders and was based in Malta. On the 2nd of November 1924 he, his wife and their son Ulric, were invited to have tea on board the cruiser HMS Calypso in Valetta Harbour. They boarded a cutter at the Customs House Steps and were travelling across the harbour when Lieutenant Cronyn, the officer in charge, realised that they were on a collision course with the destroyer HMS Venomous. He shouted a warning and threw the boy overboard as the cutter was struck amidships and quickly sank. Charles Huggins went down with the boat but surfaced shortly afterwards gasping for breath. His wife was trapped in an air bubble in the wreckage but managed to free herself and reach the surface.

He became a member of the Worshipful Company of Saddlers on the 11th of May 1904 and later served as Master of the Company. He retired from the army on the 1st of March 1927. During the Second World War he served as Chief Warden with Air Raid Precautions for the Hadlow Down Parish.

He lived at "The Wilderness", Hadlow Down in Sussex where he died.

His medals were sold at auction in 2006.
Went on to Wellington College

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