Sidney Higgins was an 18 year old orchardist in January 1916 when he enlisted at Claremont, Tasmania. Prior to embarkation he was allotted to the 3,d reinforcement for the 13th Field Artillery, serving as a gunner.
On 2 January 1917 he was taken on strength as a driver and posted to the 113th Battery from the Australian General Base Depot, arriving in France in mid-December, 1917.
Winter on the Western Front was hard going particularly with the cold and wet from the rain and the damaged water table. Many men who were forced to stand for hours in cold water up over their boots soon developed trench feet, Sidney Higgins among them. Trench foot was a serious and debilitating condition that if left untreated could see men loose toes, if not their whole foot when skin and circulation broke down from being constantly wet.
In June 1918 Sidney Higgins was once more considered fit for duty and returned to the front departing Folkstone on 6th June and joining his unit in the field two weeks later.
On enlistment Sidney claimed that he was 18 years of age, but it would later be discovered that he was in fact 16 years and 4 months of age. Rather than send him home for discharge, Sidney was sent to the Australian General Base Depot and to the School of Instruction until December 1918 when hostilities had finished. He was then marched out to England for return to Australia at the first opportunity.
Sidney Higgins departed England on 5 March on board the Nevasa being discharged on 6 June 1919. Post war Sidney found it hard to settle. He married Violet Rose Newell but the marriage ended in divorce. Sidney passed away at St Johns Park Nursing Home on 24 November 1978 aged 79 years. He was survived by one son Sydney Matthew Higgins.
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