Anthony Higgins

Anthony “Tony” Higgins was born in Edmonton, England, a suburb of London, on July 19, 1909. His father, Thomas Bartholomew William Higgins (“Bart”) was a solicitor's clerk. He had married Augusta Louisa Ann Ryan on June 2, 1906 in London and their first child, Marjorie was born in 1907. Some of Bart's siblings had immigrated to Canada in the early 1900s and even Bart's sexagenarian parents, Thomas and Elizabeth Higgins, arrived in Toronto in April 1912 to join their son, George. Thomas was a baker who acquired a shop at 1604 Gerrard Street East, near Coxwell. That September, Bart, Augusta, five year old Marjorie, three year old Tony and six month old baby Arthur disembarked in Quebec City and joined the family in Toronto.

By 1919, Tony's parents were living at 288 Westlake Avenue, in a house which is no longer standing. Bart found work as a clerk and eventually was a bookkeeper for Canadian General Electric. Another son, Raymond, was born. Tony and Marjorie attended the newly opened Secord School which served many children in the Cedarvale/Little York neighbourhoods. In 1919 a little sister, Claire, was born in the house on Westlake. By 1920 the neighbourhood, which had been a sleepy place with market gardens and few houses, was quickly being developed. In 1910, there were only 75 school children, but by 1920, even though Secord School had been built five years earlier, the school was bursting with almost 1400 students. Plans were made for Danforth Park, a new school which would serve the students who lived west of Chisholm and reduce the pressure on Secord. Tony was a part of the cohort that transferred to Danforth Park when it opened in 1922 and he was probably in the first graduating class of 1923. He was a boy who played sports, especially baseball, but he only played casually. He eventually acquired a keen interest in photography.

Tragedy struck the family when mother Augusta suddenly passed away on January 2, 1923. East York High School (now Collegiate) didn't open until 1927 and a small continuation school was held in Danforth Park. The lack of a proper high school in East York and his mother's death probably contributed to Tony leaving school and eventually finding a job. His extended family of Higgins aunts lived nearby, including his Aunt Bessie not far away on Cunard Avenue, which eventually became an extension of Cosburn. In 1924, the family moved to 310 Lumsden Avenue. (Originally it was called 224, but the street was renumbered in the mid-1920s.)

In 1925, Tony briefly worked downtown for the Standard Radio Company as a coil winder, but he was laid off because of lack of work. He found a job the next year at The Sangamo Electric Company of Canada on George Street where Moss Park is today. The company was American owned, but the George Street factory was one of two Sangamo branches in Canada that produced electrical meters. Tony worked his way up through the company, finally becoming a machinist.

On September 26, 1926, Bart married an Englishwoman, Eliza Frances Cook, known as “Frank,” who lived above the pharmacy that was on the southwest corner of Meagher Avenue (later Oak Park) and Lumsden.

Tony broke his left arm in a motorcycle accident in 1931 which left him with a metal plate in his arm and a scar. He had moved out of the Lumsden house and was boarding with a Mrs. Margaret Reeves on Langford Avenue near Danforth and Donlands. Bart moved the remaining family first to Gledhill Avenue, then Woodbine Avenue and finally to Kippendavie Avenue in the Beach. Because of the Depression in the early 1930s, many families who had immigrated to Canada returned to the old country. In July 1931, Bart and Frank moved back to London with Raymond and Claire. Arthur followed them the next year. Marjorie and Tony remained in Canada as they were both working.

In 1935, Tony decided to better himself and get a high school education. He enrolled in Danforth Tech's night school, specializing in Chemistry. It wasn't easy working all day at Sangamo and then gathering his books every night for night school. His weekends were probably filled with studying. Mrs. Reeves must have been a good landlady. When she moved to 66 Woodycrest Boulevard in the same neighbourhood, he continued to rent a room from her. In 1940 she moved again, to 78 Dewhurst Boulevard, and Tony moved with her.

In 1939, all the hard work had paid off and Tony was awarded his diploma from Danforth Tech. After the war started in September, he enrolled in a night school aircraft mechanics course at Central Tech. He completed half a year in the course when he decided that his spare time would be better served for the war effort by enlisting in the reserve of the Governor General's Horse Guards on August 13, 1940. It was a unit that was providing home defence.

When the RCAF broadened its qualification standards in early 1941, Tony was given a discharge from the GGHG and joined the RCAF on September 12, 1941. Since the beginning of the war, he had been keen to join the air force, and had enjoyed a two hour flight as a passenger, but initially the RCAF was only accepting university graduates and licenced pilots. Tony had recently received his fifteen years' service pin at work, which had moved to a factory in Leaside and the company was eager to have him return to his job after the war. Tony hoped that after the war he could find a job in chemistry or photography.

Tony joined the forces partly for excitement, but in late summer 1942 he expressed another reason for joining the RCAF in a letter to his sister Claire:

I had a chum, Bill Snell, a pilot who was killed over there a couple of months ago, and I'd do my damnedest to wipe out a condition which will do the same thing to thousands of other people as it did to Bill's folks. Bill meant something to me and the Germans don't, and there's no choice, Claire. It has to be done and the sooner it's over, the better... I've joined as an observer, who is also, on small bombers, the bombardier. Can't you see Claire? I hate the thought of hurting anyone but it's inevitable. Someone has to do it...

From Ward, Kirsten, Letters across the Atlantic Marjorie and Claire 1931 - 1949. Toronto, 2014, p.69. By permission of Kirsten Ward.

Tony was ten years older than most of the recruits, but his maturity was an asset and he scored high marks in his initial training in Toronto where it was determined that he would make a good navigator. On April 13, 1942 he started the Air Navigators Course in Winnipeg and came third in his class. He received his navigator's wing on August 14. His evaluators wrote: “Work has been of highest order. Has worked hard and has assisted weaker class members. Does very neat work.” It was believed he could be a good leader.

Tony, right, at Navigators School in Winnipeg, 1942. (Higgins/Ward Family Collection)

The next day Tony was granted two weeks of leave before embarking for Britain. He returned to Toronto, spending time with his sister Marjorie and his extended family. He left Canada in early October. Prior to reporting for duty, he spent a joyous weekend visiting his family who were living in southeast London. Then, like most RCAF members, he spent a few weeks in Bournemouth, England at the Personnel Reception Centre awaiting his assignment to a training unit for the aircraft he would fight in. As a navigator, he would have had fewer than if he had been a pilot. Tony would either be a navigator on a small bomber like a Mosquito, a larger bomber or a search and rescue flying boat. While he waited in Bournemouth, he bought a guide book and saw the sights.

October 1942, during Tony's weekend visit to London. Bart, Frank, Claire and Tony. (Higgins/Ward Family Collection)

Wellington bomber. United Kingdom Government photo.

On November 3, Tony was sent to No. 23 Operational Training Unit (OTU) at RAF Pershore, 13 kilometres southeast of Worcester. It was a training airfield for the RCAF and Tony was to be a navigator on a Wellington night bomber. In 1942, the two-engine Wellington was the primary long range night bomber of the Allied forces, eventually supplanted by the four-engine Lancaster bomber. In 1942 it usually carried a crew of six: two pilots, a radio operator, a navigator, two gunners, one in the nose, who was also an observer, and one in the tail. The crews usually chose each other at a social gathering when they arrived at the OTU. Tony teamed up with 21 year old pilot Reginald Bellew of the RAF. He was from Cheshire. The observer was 21 year old Arthur Duben, an RAF member from Dorcester. One gunner was George Hicks, 22, from London, England and the other was Richard Lawton, 24, from St. John, New Brunswick. The crew had to learn all about the Wellington. Once ground lessons in the operation of the plane and the study of European maps, weather and aircraft reconnaissance was undertaken, the crew would spend 16 hours in the air getting used to the plane doing take offs, circuits and landings. A flight instructor usually joined the crew in the second pilot's seat. Eventually stalls were practised and anything else untoward that a crew might experience. Airborne daylight lessons switched to night flying and a crew spent at least four hours on high level bombing practice. The lessons in the air were all dependent upon the co-operation of the weather and November and December in England could be dull and wet.

By December 16, 1942, the crew, along with an additional navigator, RAF Pilot Officer Ronald Goodwin from London, England, took off for a night training flight and bombing practice. The plane flew into poor weather and veered 15 kilometres off course. At 2323 hrs the Wellington flew into the top of Ullock Pike, near Bassenthwaite in the English Lake District. All were killed instantly. Today the crash site is still visible on the side of the mountain.

Ullock Pike, near Bassenthwaite, England. From www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk.

The crash site which today is an area of dead ground. From www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk.

Tony was buried in St. Michael's Churchyard in East Wickham, near London. His father and step-mother lived lived close to the churchyard, in a house they bought on their return from Canada. Bart passed away in the 1950s.