General Sir George Wentworth Alexander Higginson, (21 June 1826 – 1 February 1927) was a British Army officer and veteran of the Crimean War who served more than 30 years in the Grenadier Guards. Early life Higginson was born in 1826 in Marlow, Buckinghamshire, England. He was the son of General George Powell Higginson, Grenadier Guards, who distinguished himself at the Battle of Corunna, and Lady Frances Elizabeth, daughter of Francis Needham, 1st Earl of Kilmorey. His paternal grandmother was the painter Martha Isaacs, wife of Alexander Higginson, of the East India Company, chief of the provincial council at Burdwan, West Bengal, and member of the Board of Trade. The Higginsons were a military family, and owned a large timber wharf on the Thames and land in Essex and at Marlow, Buckinghamshire. He spent his childhood in West London, which at that time consisted of villages and fields, and was educated at Eton College. Military career On 14 February 1845, Higginson was commissioned by purchase in the 1st Regiment of the Grenadier Guards with the regimental rank of ensign (army rank of lieutenant). He was promoted by purchase to regimental lieutenant (army rank of captain) on 12 July 1850. He was appointed as the regimental adjutant on 5 December 1851. As Adjutant of the 3rd Battalion, he served throughout the Crimean War. He participated in the battles of Alma, Balaclava and Inkerman, having his horse shot from under him at Inkerman. He was promoted to the brevet rank of major in the army on 12 December 1854. He was also present at the siege and fall of Sebastopol, following which he served as Brigade Major of his regiment, until the end of the war. He was promoted to brevet lieutenant colonel in the army on 2 November 1855, and was promoted by purchase to lieutenant colonel on 10 April 1857. Higginson, throughout his career, travelled extensively on military affairs, to Ireland, Canada, France, Italy and Russia. He also spent time in the United States during the American Civil War, where he had family ties. He was promoted to the brevet rank of colonel on 30 September 1863, to regimental major (army rank of lieutenant colonel) on 10 July 1870 and to regimental lieutenant colonel (army rank of colonel) on 15 September 1877. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1871 Birthday Honours. Promoted to