Flying Officer Thomas Peter Kingsland HIGGS (1935)

111 Squadron, RAF
Born 13 February 1917 in Oldham, Lancashire
Killed in action 10 July 1940, aged 23
Buried at Noordwijk General Cemetery, The Netherlands.

Peter Higgs was the son of Arthur H Higgs, an electrical engineer with Ferranti, and Alice, née Dunkerley. He was named after his paternal grandfather The Revd Thomas Higgs, a minister at Greenacres Congregational Church from 1891 until his death in 1907. His paternal grandmother Mary Higgs was a local pioneer and social reformer who helped established the borough’s first hostels for homeless women.

Peter and his sister Barbara were tragically orphaned at a young age. Peter stayed on with his grandmother until he went as a boarder to The Royal Masonic School in Bushey, Hertfordshire.

He captained the Merton athletics and swimming teams, and played rugby in the College XV.

A member of the Oxford University Air Squadron whilst at Merton, he joined 111 Squadron, Royal Air Force at Croydon.

On 10 July 1940, radar picked up enemy planes approaching Calais and RAF Hurricanes were scrambled from Manston, Biggin Hill, Hornchurch, Kenley and Croydon in the south-east of England. As the first major battle got under way Peter fired at a lone German Dornier but got too close and clipped his plane. His Hurricane lost a wing and both planes spun out of control crashing into the English Channel below. Peter managed to bail out but drowned after a rescue launch failed to pick him up. He thus became the first and only British pilot to be killed on the first day of the Battle of Britain.

His body was washed ashore on the Dutch coast weeks later on 15 August and he was buried days later in the Noordwijk Cemetery.