| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Private John Holmes of the 5th Battalion, Border Regiment, was seriously wounded on 21 Jan 1917 whilst serving on the frontline on the Somme. He enlisted in Hull on 1 Nov 1915 and was originally allocated to the East Yorkshire Regiment. He arrived on the Somme on 13 Jul 1916. John received serious gunshot wounds to both arms which indicate that skirmishing and sniping was still going on along the frontline. He was repatriated to the UK and was treated at Stapleton Park Hospital, Pontefract, the 2nd Northern General Hospital. He remained there until 5 Apr 1917. John was not considered fit for further frontline duty and he spent the rest of the war in the UK with the Northern Command Bombing School at Otley, West Yorkshire. He was promoted to Acting-Corporal and then Acting Sergeant. He left the army in late Apr 1919 and was awarded the War and Victory medals.
John was born in Beverley the 6 May 1896 and baptised at Beverley Minster the 20 Mar 1897, he was confirmed in 1900. He became a tailor having served an apprenticeship. John was one of nine children born to George Whiting Holmes, born 1854 in Arram, and Elizabeth Waite, born 1858 in Molescroft. Both died in 1915. The family lived at Rose of Sharon Cottage, Butt Lane not far from the whiting works where George worked as a labourer.
On his return from war service John returned to tailoring but in Nov 1922 joined the Territorial Army as a private in the 5th Battalion of the Yorkshire Regiment, the Green Howards. He served with them until 1926. On 3 Sep 1921 John married Annie Landon at Beverley Minster. They initially lived in Denton Street, but later moved to the Bridlington area. Their son Reginald was born 1922 and died aged four in 1926, daughter Betty Holmes was born in Beverley in 1924. John died in Bridlington in 1974; Annie died in 1987.
Includes photograph, information taken from census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |