Biography:
Philip Henry Habershon was born 16 March 1893, the third son of Edward Neston Williams Habershon (G 1872-1874), of Holmwood, Dorking, and his wife Amy. His younger brother was Second Lieutenant Sidney Heathcote Habershon (A 1903-1908), Suffolk Regiment, who fell in April 1918 (see individual entry).
Philip came to Winchester College in September 1907 from Mr AS Tabor's school at Cheam. He was in A House, Chernocke, under JS Furley, and rowed in the house IV, came 18th in Senior Steeplechase in 1911, and he stood on Dress for OTH XV in 1910.
He left Winchester in the summer of 1911 and in 1912, he followed his brother to Clare College, Cambridge. In the first weeks of the war Philip enlisted in a battalion of the Middlesex Regiment and served with them until November 1914, when he obtained a commission in the King's Royal Rifle Corps. He was with 9KRRC when it was involved in the action at Hooge in the Ypres Salient on 30 July 1915, an action which saw the first use of flame-throwers and resulted in the loss of several OWs.
Habershon fell at near Bellewaarde on 25 September 1915, while temporarily attached to a battalion of the Rifle Brigade. His place of burial is unknown but he is commemorated on panel 51 and 53 of the Menin Gate in Ypres.