Lives of the First World War

William Holmes was a Sergeant in the 6th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment. He was born in approximately 1890, and seems to have originally been a native of Lavendon in Buckinghamshire. At William Holmes' death his father was still living in Lavendon, and William Holmes is also commemorated on the Lavendon War Memorial. On 1 April 1916 William Holmes married, in Little Harrowden, Sarah Elizabeth Smith. She was the sister of Alfred Ernest Smith who is also commemorated on the Harrowdens War Memorial. A few days after their marriage William Holmes returned to France and was killed before he ever saw his wife again. Having enlisted at the beginning of the War, William Holmes was attached to the 6th Battalion Northamptonshire Regiment. He first went to France when the Battalion was posted there on 26 July 1915. He would almost certainly have fought in the Battle of Loos, and also, during the Battle of the Somme, at Trones Wood, where William Bott (also commemorated on the Harrowdens War Memorial) was killed. On 17th of February 1917, the 6th Battalion was involved in the, relatively small, Battle of Boom Ravine. This took place just south of Miraumont, on the edge of the 1916 Somme battlefield. In the days running up to the Battle the weather had been very cold and the ground frozen solid. Immediately before the Battle there was a thaw turning the ground into a quagmire, and also creating fog. To minimise the danger of the men forming up to attack the German lines being shelled in their forming up place the 6th Battalion moved out quietly into “no-man's” land and formed up lying on the floor. Having done so, they lay on the cold ground for five hours during the night of 16-17 February 1917. The attack went badly. Those elements of the 6th Battalion that did reach the German lines found the German barbed wire largely intact. Casualties, particularly amongst NCOs and officers were high. William Holmes was one of seven sergeants killed, and seven officers, including the commanding officer, were also killed. Eventually the Battalion found itself being led on the battlefield by Lieutenant Tommy Price, because all officers senior to him had been killed or wounded. Press reports suggest that William Holmes was wounded by a sniper and given first aid on the battlefield but died whilst being carried to a dressing station. William Holmes was buried close to where he died, in Regina Trench Cemetery. It is likely that he would have passed the cemetery as he moved up preparatory to the Battle, via Regina Trench, which ran just in front of the cemetery.

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