Hertfordshire Regiment
Officers photos and Bio's (1)
Second
Lieutenant Percy James HOLT.
This is a young man called Percy Holt.
He was born on the
14th January 1896 at Cradley, near Malvern to Phlilip and Eliza Holt.
His father died suddenly in 1907 and James went on to be educated at
Tewkbury
Grammar School
between 1910 and 1912. He was a Drapers assistant at Rendale and Co.
in Malvern when he enlisted into the army at Hereford
on the 7th September 1914. Percy became Private 2210 in the 1st/1st
Herefordshire regiment (later renumbered to 235660) and specialised
as a Signaller. After initial training he embarked for Gallipoli on
the TSS Euripides, 16th July 1915.
At
7am on the 9th August the battalion landed at Suvla
Bay, Gallipoli,
and Percy survived what can only be called the difficult landings and
assaults of that week. Whilst they were in reserve at Karakol Dagh he
was admitted to the 26th C.C.S. on Gallipoli with shrapnel in his right
foot on the 26th September 1915. He was moved to the 17th General Hospital
in Alexandria,
arriving there on the 1st October, and onto No.6 Convalescent Hospital
3 days later. By the 6th November Percy was back at the Base Depot and
returned to Gallipoli for the final phase of the campaign, but was off
of the Peninsular again on the 4th December. The next year was spent
in Egypt and on the
9th April Percy was made up to a Corporal and in September to a Sergeant
while his battalion defended the Suez Canal.
Sergeant
Holt applied for a commission in Egypt
on the 30th December 1916 and was shipped back to England
for his Officer training on the H.T. Arcadia, embarking on the 31st
January 1916. He started his training at the 14th Officer Cadet Battalion
at Berkhampstead on the 7th April 1917 and was granted a temporary commission
in the 6th battalion of the Bedfordshire Regiment September 1917.
On
the 20th April 1918 2/Lt P.J. Holt arrived with the 6th battalion in
the field along with a large replacement Officer draft and served with
the battalion until they were disbanded in May. His first summer in
France
was, on the whole, uneventful. The 10th August onwards saw the battalion
advancing as a part of the massive allied offensives that would lead
directly to the end of the war that November and the 23rd August saw
him involved in attacking and taking Achiet-le-Grand, for the cost of
almost 200 casualties. On the 27th August he wrote to his mother on
German notepaper he must have taken from the battlefield at Achiet-le-Grand.
He remarks that he was very well, that he had “been busy as you
may have seen in the papers” and how he expects to not be able
to write very often after that note. Sadly, this was to be the last
letter he wrote as he lost his life a week later.
The
Hertfords assaulted German positions north east of Bapaume on the 4th
September and suffered badly from machine gun fire and gas. The next
day was spent consolidating their new positions under fire so Percy
was wounded on one of these days. Sadly he died of wounds at 4.50am
on the 6th September 1918, whilst on board the 14th Ambulance Train
bound for Rouen.
Included in his personal effects were a German pistol and case (perhaps
taken at the same time the notebook was), his personal correspondence
and ten buttons from his old Bedfordshire Regiment tunic he had kept
as souvenirs. He is buried in the St. Sever cemetery in Rouen
After
his death his mother entered into what can only be described as heartbroken
correspondence with the War Office, desperate to understand more of
her obviously much loved son’s death.
The
first photograph of Percy by himself (above) was taken in 1914/1915
just after he enlisted into the army at the age of 19. The second one
as well as the one taken with his younger sister Kathleen shows him
sporting a long service stripe, 2 oversees chevrons from Gallipoli,
a wound stripe also from Gallipoli and the Signallers flags showing
his specialisation. These two must have been taken in 1917 whilst in
England
for his Officer training.
(My
thanks to Geoff Alford, Percy's relative, for allowing this biography)
Go to:
Group
photos from the Hertfordshire Regiment
'Other
Ranks' photos and bio's from the Hertfordshire Regiment
