Private Herbert Holt

A white circle with a glove crossing it's fingers and the words: Made Possible with Heritage Fund.This man is a candidate for addition to Keighley's Supplementary Volume under the proposal to add further names in 2024, the centenary of the original roll of honour.
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Supported by the National Lottery's Heritage Fund, our project intends to submit about 120 names for peer review to add them to the book which is kept at Keighley Library. The unveiling of the book with it's new names is planned for November 2024, 100 years after the unveiling of the original war memorial.


Private. 2nd Battalion. Cheshire Regiment. Service Number 8715.

Early life:

His parents were John Thomas Holt and Evelina Holt née Scott and they had been married at Holy Trinity Church in Bradford on 22nd December 1888 when John was aged 20 and an iron grinder living at 40, Carpenter Street off Bowling Back Lane. Evelina was 17 and a weaver, living at 92, Myrtle Street in Bradford.

Eleven years later, Herbert was born in Keighley in 1889 (possibly the 24th April) and his birth was registered there in the second quarter of the year. His father was recorded on the 1891 electoral roll, living at 69, Fell Lane in Keighley, suggesting they had been living here at some point although they probably moved to Bradford shortly afterwards.

In the 1891 census Herbert was aged just one and living with his parents at 362, Mount Street in Bradford. He was their only child. His father John was 22 and employed as a grinder in an iron foundry and Evelina was looking after their home.

In the 1901 census Herbert was aged eleven. They had moved back to Keighley and had been living at 6, George's Square in Keighley for at least four years. His father John aged 32 was still employed as an iron grinder and this movement from house to house suggests that John was chasing work.
Mum was also working, as a weaver and they had an additional source of income from a 22 year old boarder, a worsted weaver named Mary Stampford who was accompanied by her eight month old daughter Margaret.

In August 1903 John got a job with the London and North Western Railway Company as an engine grinder and they moved to Crewe in Cheshire. They were all living down there together for a while.

By 1911 Herbert's parents were living at 9, Furber Street at Crewe in Cheshire. John was 42 and an engine iron grinder for the Railway works, so they probably went there with his work. Evelina was 39 and they had been married for 23 years with just one child (Herbert.) Herbert is absent from the 1911 census because he was serving overseas at that time.

Army and later war service:

Herbert was employed as an engine cleaner, presumably near to where his father was employed on the railway, when on 14th November 1907, He enlisted with the Cheshire Regiment, with the service number 8715. He gave his age as 18 years and seven months and that he had previously been serving with the 5th Cheshire Volunteers.
He had enlisted for seven years with the colours and five in the reserve. He was posted to the 1st Battalion on 24th December 1907 where he was serving at Belfast in Ireland.

His service with the colours was due to expire on 14th November 1914 but on 16th March 1912 he was declared a deserter. He was apprehended by the civil powers at Belfast on 13th April 1912 and handed over to an escort three days later.
He was tried by District Court martial on 24th December and sentenced to 56 days detention and stoppages of pay for desertion and losing items of his kit by neglect.
He returned to duty on 12th Jun 1912 after 49 days (with 7 days off as permitted early release) and was posted to the 2nd Battalion on 12th September that year, when he was posted to India and he served there until 18th November 1914. Whilst there, he received a 3rd class certificate of education on 22nd April 1913.

He set off back to the UK on 19th November 1914 on a voyage which took 35 days and they arrived on 23rd December.
He was in the UK until 15th January 1915 when he again went overseas, this time to France where he served until 10th July. he had a total service allowed of 7 years and 240 days but of this, 4 years and 162 days were deducted because of his desertion. This left him with a total service time of 3 years and 78 days.

He deserted again in 1915 and was tried by Field General Court Martial on 9th March that year. He was sentenced to two years with hard labour, but after just 93 days this seems to have been ended under the 'Suspension of Sentences Act' and he was released on the 10th June 1915 and rejoined his battalion, who were based at HERZEELE, about 14 miles to the South East of Dunkirk.

War diary WO-95/2276/2. 2nd Battalion Cheshire Regiment. 1915

10th June: In billets.
11th June: Battalion marched to RENINGHELST and was billeted in huts.
During the period the work of constructing the Battalion (which had lost from various causes the majority of the officers and NCO's) was proceeded with.
12th June: Battalion proceeded to billets in Reserve at VOORMEZEELE near DICKEBUSCH.
13th June: Major N.G. Goodwyn, 2nd Devonshire Regiment joined and assumed command of the Battalion. Captain C.A. Ogden 4th Durham Light Infantry joined.
Various officers took over command and were attached for duty. Battalion were in billets in Brigade Reserve.
18th June at 9 p.m.: The Battalion took over trenches from the Monmouth Regiment. Headquarters and 1/3rd of number 3 Company were at Gordon Farm.
They served in the trenches until midnight on 26th June when they were relieved by the Monmouthshire regiment and on the next day they marched to bivouacs in Brigade Reserve at near DICKEBUSCHE at H.26.d.2.4.
27th June: They rested for the next few days with some musketry, machine gun training and gas drills being carried out.
On July: 1st work parties were arranged, digging a communication trench at BOIS CARRÉ.
2nd July: Range practice for left half of the battalion. Digging of the communication trench.
3rd July: Battalion washed at DICKEBUSCHE baths.
4th July: Divine Service at bivouac. Moved to trenches on left of brigade. Headquarters at BRASSERIE FARM, ten percussion shells fell in vicinity of headquarters, one officer killed, one man slightly wounded.
Fairly uneventful period for the next few days, with some comings and goings of officers.
5th July: Draft of 66 NOC's and men arrived. One man wounded in trenches.
10th July: RIDGEWOOD shelled, two men wounded.
11th July: At 12 noon, one man was killed by rifle bullet in fire trench.

According to most records, Herbert was killed in action on 10th July 1915, but given that no other men from the 2nd Cheshire Battalion died between 4th and 13th July, it's very likely that the one man reported killed by a rifle bullet on the 11th July was Private Herbert Holt.
Occasionally there are discrepancies between the date of death and the date recorded.

Herbert's body was buried in grave number 3 of row B in plot II at Ridge Wood Military Cemetery in Belgium.

Post war:

His parents were both recorded as his next of kin.
John received Herbert's outstanding Army pay, in one payment of £8 12s 5d on 15th December 1915. He also received a war gratuity payment of £5 on 19th August 1919.

With regard to a dependant's pension, Evelina received 5s per week beginning on10th May 1919.

They received Herbert's personal effects in June 1917, the 1914-15 Star on 10th August 1919 and the bronze war memorial plaque with the King's message on the 12th December 1919. She received the British War Medal around 12th March 1921 and she would have received the Victory Medal about the same time.

Herbert's father John died at the age of 50 in 1919 and his death was registered in the last quarter of the year at Nantwich in Cheshire.
His 'London and North Western Company' railway employment records show that he ceased working for them on 29th November that year, suggesting that this may have been the actual date he died.
He'd been employed by them for 16 years and four months, which means he began his employment with them around August 1903.

In the 1921 census, widowed Evelina (Lyna) was 49 and still living at 9, Furber Street in Crewe along with another widow, 72 year old Elizabeth Barnes, originally from Oswestry in Shropshire.

In the 1939 register Evelina was a 68 year old pensioner, living at 2, Montgomery Street in Bradford. She appears to be residing with 61 year old disabled grinder Herbert Holt and his wife Mary E. Holt, aged 48 and an office cleaner.

Evelina died aged 88 in 1960 and her death was recorded in the Worth Valley in the first quarter of the year.

Remembrance:

Herbert is remembered by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission on his grave. He is also named on the Crewe War Memorial.
As far as we can tell, he is not named on any memorial in Keighley, the town of his birth and where he lived for at least seven years.

Information sources:

West Yorkshire, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1813-1935
England & Wales, Civil Registration Birth Index, 1837-1915
West Yorkshire, England, Electoral Registers, 1840-1962
1891 England Census
1901 England Census
1911 Census
British Army World War I Service Records, 1914-1920
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Soldiers Died in the Great
Army Registers of Soldiers' Effects, 1901-1929
British Army World War I Medal Rolls Index Cards, 1914-1920
World War I Service Medal and Award Rolls, 1914-1920
World War I Pension Ledgers and Index Cards, 1914-1923
Gro War Death Army Other Ranks (1914 To 1921)
England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index, 1916-2007
UK, Railway Employment Records, 1833-1956
1921 Census
1939 England and Wales Register
Crewe War Memorial

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