Horace George Pigot, born in Woodford in 1891, was the youngest son of coal merchant manager John Pigot and his wife, Sarah. In 1901, the family lived at 4 Clausen Terrace, West Grove, Woodford Green. In 1911, aged nineteen, Horace was working and living at a 39 Cromwell Road, Prittlewell, Essex, as a nursery assistant to Frank Dwelly. His parents were living at 1 Morden Villas, Higham Road, Woodford Green.
At some point, he emigrated to Canada, and worked as a machinist before enlisting in the army in Canada on 23rd September 1914. Horace returned to England with his Regiment and moved to the Western Front in April 2015. On the night of 9th October 1914, he was among a small team covering a larger working party who were repairing the parapet of their trench. He had gone forward to less than 100 yards from the German trenches, and while returning to his own lines he was hit by a bullet. His last words to an NCO before losing consciousness were ’My God, Duncan, I have been hit’. His colleagues bandaged him and carried him to the Field Aid Post but he died on the way there. On the 10th October 1915, he was buried in the R.E. Farm Cemetery, West Flanders, Belgium.
The Woodford Times of May 1915 had reported the death of his father John at Higham Road after a period of illness.
Research by Adrian Lee, Local Historian
Sources:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Ancestry.com
Woodford Times
Archives Canada