Sergeant George Henry Holmes

Army Number: 203494 (formerly 12769 9th and 2nd Battalions and 20649 1/5th Battalion)

Battalion: 1/5th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derbys) Regiment.

Born and lived in Nottingham. Son of Frederick A. and Jael Holmes, of 11, Wilford Grove, The Meadows, Nottingham. He was a clerk prior to enlisting on 18th August 1914 at Nottingham. He went to Gallipoli with the 9th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derbys) Regiment, on 1st July 1915 and suffered shrapnel wounds to his right arm, on 30th July 1915. He was admitted to Hospital Ship Neuralia and transferred to England on Hospital Ship Kanowna, on 8th August 1915. He went to France on 29th March 1916 and was appointed Lance Corporal, on 25th July 1916 and promoted to Corporal on 9th September 1916. He was invalided to England on 10th November 1916 and returned to France on 27th December 1917. He suffered gunshot wounds to his neck on 20th June 1918 and rejoined his battalion on 9th July 1918. He was then killed in action, on 24th September 1918, during the attack on Beux and Leduc trenches, near Pontruet, France.

Commemorated: Vis-En-Artois Memorial, France. Panel 7.

Sergeant George Henry Holmes is also commemorated on the following local memorials:-
St. Saviour’s War Memorial, The Meadows, Nottingham.
Victoria Embankment War Memorial, Nottingham.

His brothers Private Frederick Arthur Holmes, 1/8th Battalion Sherwood Foresters (Notts & Derbys) Regiment and Private Henry Holmes, 116th Company Machine Gun Corps, also fell in the Great War.