TOPIC:

"The Rev. J. Hirst Hollowell, of Rochdale, has just had the joy of welcoming his son home from the war. Three years ago, it will be remembered, his clothes were found by the side of Hollingworth Lake, and, though nothing came of the dragging operations, it was believed that he had committed suicide until some time afterwards, when he was known to have gone abroad. He had enlisted as a marine on H.M.S. Powerful, and fought at Belmont, Graspan, Modder River, and Magersfontein. He was afterwards selected as one of the Naval Brigade to march into Pretoria, where he was taken ill with enteric, and invalided home."
Northampton Mercury, Friday 13th July 1900

Can we identify the marine? I don't see the surnames Hirst or Hollowell in the list of H.M.S. Powerful's crew, so he likely served under an assumed name, assuming that the story is correct.

Edit - A William Henry Hollowell was born in Rochdale in 1877.

The best thing to do with this would be to take a careful look throughout ADM159, assuming, of course, he enlisted into the Royal Marine Light Infantry using his actual name, the Registers of Service, will give his exact service during the period in question as well as the name and address of his next of kin.

The Manchester Courier [9.7.1900] reported that the son had served as a Lance Corporal in the Royal Marines of H.M.S. Powerful.

I take it that it does fall short of giving the mans name?

I think it would be prudent to take a close look at the Reverends family, the name/names of his son/sons first, upon looking at the medal roll index of ADM171 there is no one of the name Hirst Hollowell, Hirst or Hollowell who jumps out as a likely match.
The way to go as far as medals are concerned would be to manually check the roll for members of the RMLI in the hope that any alias used to enlist was subsequently noted, in turn, you could check the Registers of Service in ADM159, as mentioned before, but, using the date of enlistment to isolate likely candidates, enlistment, based upon the information you gave in the original post would suggest 1897, so perhaps start with the year 1896, again in the hope that any alias used was actually subsequently noted.

I find it a little odd that he was not named by the press, if he lied regarding is name then it would certainly not be unreasonable to assume he will have done the same in respect of other basic details.

I'm not a naval type, but I was under the impression that Powerful was moored up at Durban and put her mixed bag of Jack Tars and RMLI ashore actually there, to assist in the defence of Ladysmith in 1899.

Frank Kelley wrote: I find it a little odd that he was not named by the press, if he lied regarding is name then it would certainly not be unreasonable to assume he will have done the same in respect of other basic details.

That's the big problem. His mother's maiden name was Colling, but there was no-one of that surname with H.M.S. Powerful. Oddly, I found a newspaper report of a regional meeting of the Women's Liberal Association, held 25th April 1900, not too long before her son returned home, where Mrs. Hirst Hollowell said that "she could never forgive the men who had brought about this unrighteous war. It was the Imperialist policy to crush out two small countries who in self-defence were fighting against us."
Must have been an uncomfortable atmosphere in the house after the son's return.