Add New Content


Please log in or register to add new content.

Login

Report Inaccuracies


Bernard George Dawson Biggs (1868-1916)


Darlington bookseller and former mayor served with 5th DLI


The funeral of Bernard George Dawson Biggs seems to have brought Darlington to a standstill. His funeral cortege included a gun carriage to carry the coffin, which was draped in the Union Flag and processed through the streets. The procession wound its way from St Hilda’s Church, across the time to West Cemetery, where the body was interred. According to the newspaper, the way was lined with 200 members of the the Northants Regiment, whose band played the “Dead March”.

Although born in Lichfield, Bernard George Dawson Biggs seems to have been a well-known and well respected man in Darlington, where he spent most of his adult life. He established a business as a bookseller, but was also involved in local politics and local Territorial detachment of the Durham Light Infantry (DLI). He was commissioned to 1st Volunteer Battalion DLI in 1901. He was successively promoted, and by the the outbreak of the First World War was a captain in the 5th Battalion.

Bernard also began his career in local politics in 1903, when he was first elected to the Town Council. He served as mayor in 1908 and was the Chairman of the Public Library Committee. His obituary in the Darlington and Stockton Times notes that he introduced “the open access system” while with the Library Committee and was also responsible for “other sweeping reforms.”

At the very beginning of the war, Bernard was appointed second in command of the battalion, a position that he held until August 1915. He first landed in France on 18 April 1915 and was soon involved in the Second Battle of Ypres. It seems that he was gassed during the battle and was invalided home. According to his obituary, he was disappointed by the verdict of several medical boards which stopped him from rejoining his regiment. However, once conscription was brought in in 1916, Bernard served as the military representative on the Darlington Military Tribunal. The Tribunal examined men who claimed exemption from conscription on financial, personal or moral grounds.

The proceedings of Tribunals were often reported in the local newspapers. The military representatives in these reports can often seem rather harsh and dismissive; it can seem that they were determined to get as many men into the army as possible, whatever the cost. However, the obituaries for Bernard stress his sense of courteousness to all. His colleagues on the Tribunal emphasised his “pleasant and genial way” and his ability to understand that “there were two sides to every question.” (Stockton and Darlington Times, 9 December 1916).

It seems likely that the gas that Bernard inhaled at Ypres fatally weakened his lungs. He died at home in Darlington on 1 December 1916 of pneumonia.

Civil Parish: Darlington

Birth date: 1868

Death date: 01-Dec-1916

Armed force/civilian: Army

Residence: Sunniside, Oakdene Avenue, Darlington (1911 census)

Organisation membership: Freemason, Marquess of Ripon Lodge, Dalington (initiated 5 March 1896)
Town councillor (from1903)
Chairman of the Public Library Committee
Town mayor (1908)
Churchwarden, St Hild’s Church, Darlington
Darlington Equitable Building Society, director

Employment: Bookseller, painter and stationer (1911 census)

Family: Parients: Sylvanus Biggs, Anne Biggs (Christening index)
Wife: Anne Isabella Biggs (1911 census)

Military service:

1901: 1st Volunteer Battalion Durham Light Infantry
1908: 5th Battalion Durham Light Infantry

Medal(s): 1915 Star
British War Medal
Victory Medal

Memorial(s): War Memorial Hospital, Hollyhurst Road, Darlington
Saint Hilda’s Church, Darlington (now closed – plaque to be found at Darlington Library)
Buried at West Cemetery, Darlington

Gender: Male

Contributed by Durham County Record Office | Darlington Local Studies Library