Edmund Tucker Higgs

HIGGS, EDMUND TUCKER, businessperson, insurance company president, and ferry service board director; b. 24 November 1873 in Charlottetown, son of Benjamin Wilson Higgs and Amelia A Darby; m. ca. 1905 Anne Irving, and there were no children; Methodist; d. 9 December 1957 in Charlottetown. Higgs, a Liberal, was elected to the Legislative Assembly in the general election of 1919 for 5th Queens. He was defeated in the general elections of 1915 and 1923. Higgs received his education in the public schools in Charlottetown and later attended Charlottetown Business College. A successful business person, he began his career as a junior clerk in the office of Horace Haszard in 1889, and by 1892 became a chief clerk in the firm. In 1913 he began a business, Higgs and Company Limited, and held the dual roles of president and manager. He was also the vice-president of Goff Brothers Limited and became a director of Northumberland Ferries Limited upon its formation. Although occupied with his own business ventures, Higgs served the business community as president of both the Charlottetown Board of Trade and the Maritime Board of Trade. He was granted an honourary membership of the Charlottetown Board of Trade. Higgs had other community involvements. He was a member of the board of directors of the Young Men's Christian Association and was the superintendent of the Kensington Hall Mission. He was a superintendent and secretary-treasurer of the Methodist Sunday School, as well as treasurer of the trustee board of the Methodist Church in Charlottetown. Higgs played a prominent role in the Victory Loan Campaign and, in 1921, was a member of the Navy League of Canada, Prince Edward Island Division. In addition to these activities and his business pursuits, Higgs was a member of the A.F. and A.M. and the International Order of Oddfellows. Edmund Higgs died 9 December 1957 at the Prince Edward Island Hospital. Anne Higgs, the daughter of David P. Irving* and Anne Irving of Vernon, was born 12 April 1879 and died 15 September 1946. Her brother James Cephas Irving* also served in the Legislature.