| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
James Henry Holmes’ photograph, along with five of his brothers-in-law, appeared in the Beverley Guardian 20 Jan 1917, with the notation that he was serving “At the Front” in the Middlesex Regiment and that he was son-in-law of Mrs Sample, Sloe Lane, Beverley. Also featured were three other sons-in-law of Mrs Sample, three of the five Sample brothers were killed but all four sons-in-law survived the conflict.
James's marriage certificate in 1916, when he married Eliza Lucy Sample in Beverley Minster, shows he was a Private stationed at Chatham, the only reference to his WW1 service that has been found is that published in the Beverley Guardian.
James was born in Beverley in 1890, one of eight children of George William Holmes, a master blacksmith, and his wife Annie Eliza, in 1911 he was living with his parents in Pasture Terrace, working as a blacksmith. On his return to civilian life James was employed as a blacksmith, living in Pasture Terrace. His first daughter Eileen was born in 1918 and his second daughter Lilian in 1920. James died in 1953 at the age of 62, and Eliza died in 1983 at the age of 88.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |