Private William John Tustin Figgitt (1892-1965) was a horseman and labourer, employed by Benjamin Carter of Field Farm, Wickhamford. Always known as Teddy, he was the eldest of four children of Hubert and Emily Jane Figgitt. His younger brother, Albert Walter Figgitt, also served during the war.
Teddy enlisted on 17th March 1916 (No 58637) but he was discharged as medically unfit on 29th July 1916. He re-enlisted on 25th March 1918. He was placed in the 627th Agricultural Company of the Labour Corps on 13th May 1918. (He had been attested earlier, on 28th February 1916, put in the Army Reserve, mobilized on 27th March and again put in the Reserves before being discharged as medically unfit on 29th July 1916.) In the 1919 list of Absent Voters, Teddy is recorded as being in the RDF Reserves (No 26508). From a review of his army service record, this is the Recruit Distribution Battalion Training Reserve, which was part of the Labour Corps (obviously the T for Training had been mis-transcribed as an F), as there is a note from Captain P Pears, 36th Recruit Distribution Battalion Training Reserve.
Teddy was in the 30th Labour Company when it was sent to join the Cavalry Division at Cologne on the Rhine on 24th June 1919. He was sent to hospital in Cologne on 25th October 1919 because of an abscess of the throat. This condition warranted evacuation to England where he was treated in Queen Mary’s Hospital, Whalley, Lancashire.
On demobilization, on 24th December 1919 his home address was ‘3 Wickhamford’. Teddy is buried in Wickhamford Cemetery.