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Major-General Harold Whitla Higginson CB, DSO & Bar (10 November 1873 – 30 October 1954) was a British Army officer.
Military career
Born in British India in 1873, the son of Colonel Theophilus Higginson, and educated at St Lawrence College, Ramsgate and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, Higginson was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers in October 1894.
After seeing action in the Second Boer War, he became commanding officer of the 2nd Battalion, Royal Dublin Fusiliers on the Western Front in June 1915 during the First World War and was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) on 14 January 1916. He became commander of the 53rd Brigade, part of the 18th (Eastern) Division, on 2 May 1916 and saw action with his brigade during the Battle of the Somme later that year and the Battle of Passchendaele in the autumn of 1917. He became general officer commanding (GOC) of the 12th (Eastern) Division in April 1918 and, after commanding his division at the Battle of Amiens in August, was awarded a bar to his DSO on 18 September 1918. The bar's citation reads as follows:
For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty while commanding his brigade. In fourteen days' fighting the losses of the brigade exceeded 70 per cent, but owing to his able leadership and the fine example set by him their fighting spirit was in no way impaired. The courageous stands made by them were of great assistance to other brigades.
He continued to command his division during the Hundred Days Offensive in autumn 1918 and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1919 New Year Honours.
After the war, he became commander of the 17th Infantry Brigade at Cork in Ireland in November 1919: this was a troubled time in the city leading up to the Burning of Cork by the Black and Tans in December 1920. His last appointments were as commander of the 2nd Infantry Brigade at Aldershot in February 1922, Officer Commanding the British Troops in Ceylon in 1924 and GOC 55th (West Lancashire) Infantry Division in September 1928 before retiring in September 1932.