| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Caulaincourt and Trefcon had been captured by the Germans in Mar 1918, and Bombadier Reginald W R Holmes was killed in Sep 1918 while serving with the 32nd Division Ammunition Column of the Royal Field Artillery when British troops regained the villages. It was reported in the Beverley Guardian, dated 28 Sep 1918, that he had been killed by an enemy bomb during an aerial bombardment in France. He is buried and Remembered with Honour at the Trefcon British Cemetery. He is also commemorated on the Beverley War Memorial in Hengate.
Reginald embarked to France in Dec 1915 and, on his death, Lieutenant Colonel James Walker, RFA, commanding the 32nd Division Ammunition Column, wrote to his aunt, saying:
“He fell doing his duty to the last moment. We buried him in a military cemetery yesterday afternoon. Your nephew has been with me since the formation of the Column and I feel his loss very keenly. He was a brave and conscientious soldier and has rendered most valuable help and assistance to me. He was exceedingly popular with the officers and men of the Column and we all sympathise deeply with you and with his sister.”
Reginald Holmes was born in Manchester in 1891, the son of John Riby Holmes a fruit salesman and his wife Edith Eleanor. Reginald’s father was born in Beverley, one of ten children of James and Ann Holmes. Reginald’s sister, Edith, was born in Manchester in Dec 1901, but their mother died in early 1902. In the 1911 Census, he and his sister were living in the home of their paternal grandparents in Norwood, Beverley, and Reginald was employed by Messrs Collison & Co, Agricultural Implement Agents in Beverley, as a salesman.
His father re-married and in the 1911 census is shown as still living in Manchester, he and his second wife, Ada Ann, had a daughter, Annie Riby, born in 1910. Reginald was unmarried and, following his death, his effects were awarded to his Aunt Sarah.
The 1939 Register shows that Reginald’s sister, Edith, was still living with their maiden-aunt, Sarah Holmes, in Pasture Terrace, Beverley
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |