TOPIC:

4141 LANCE CORPORAL GEORGE EDWARD HOLLOWAY: 30TH(PEMBROKESHIRE) COMPANY 9TH BATTALION IMPERIAL YEOMANRY]

I must confess that I am predominantly a collector of medals of the Anglo Boer War, and that part of the pleasure of such collecting is the research of the recipient and the biography that brings a soldier back to life.

Occasionally, one finds another type of artefact which can provide a lead to an interesting history. Below is a postcard which accomplished just that!



Postcard featuring George Edward Holloway (on the right) proudly wearing his QSA and coronation medals. The identity of the gentleman in uniform to the left and the nurse are, at present, unknown.

George was born in 1879 at Castell Caereinion, Welshpool, Montgomeryshire, Wales.
The Census of 1881 finds George living at The Rhallt Farm Castle, Castle Caereinion with his father Edward a farmer and his mam Mary, along with brothers John (14), Thomas (10) and 6 year old sister Ann. The family were joined by Emily Breese (25), Thomas Pugh (23) and David Evans (16) who were all in service to the Holloway family.

By 1891 the family had moved over the border to a farm at Dudston, Chirbury, Fardin, Shropshire. The family had expanded with the addition of Jane (7) and Martin (11 months). George Jones, William H. Bright and Ann Bailey were now in the employ of the Holloways.

Having followed in the family tradition and become a farmer , George felt compelled to serve Queen, Country and Empire when the call to arms was made for the raising of the Imperial Yeomanry to travel to South Africa to fight against the Boer Republics of Transvaal and the Orange Free State. George was typical of the stamp of man who signed up and would have been able to mount and ride a horse, shoot and be used to the country life.
George attested to the Imperial Yeomanry at Tenby on 2nd February 1900 which would have been a cold winter's day!
He was 20 years and 10 months old, a farmer and 5' 10 1/2" in height, weighed 142 lbs and had a very respectable chest expansion range of 35" to 38 1/4". A strapping fellow.
He was a single man of fair complexion, blue eyed, dark brown hair, had no distinguishing features and was of Church of England by religious denomination.

Next of kin was his father Edward of Dudston, Chirbury, Salop.

His service record states that he was recorded as 'missing in action Ventersburg 25/1900.' (more on this later).

He was discharged on 7th August 1901 following 1 year and 186 days service, receiving the Queen's South Africa medal with clasps Cape Colony/Orange Free State and South Africa 1901.


Accompanying the above featured postcard was this newspaper clipping bearing the same image of George as on the postcard, which obviously confirms his identity. Wonderful that these two items have remained together over the years. Unfortunately, the clipping comes from an unknown source as the details of the publication have been cut away.
Notwithstanding, the full article quoted here:

"Late Mr. G. E. Holloway, Montgomery"

"The death occurred on Tuesday week of Mr. George Edward Holloway (77), Cartref, Prince's Street, Montgomery, a former member of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry.
He joined the Yeomanry as a trooper in January 1900, and sailed for South Africa and the Boer War that same year. He saw active service at Bloemfontein before being taken prisoner at Vendedburg(sic). In July 1901, he returned to England and was one of those who represented the regiment at the coronation of King Edward, and was a member of the colour -party at the investiture of the Prince of Wales in 1911.
He was a sergeant -major for eight years, and served in the Yeomanry until March 1914, when he transferred to the Welsh Horse Regiment. After serving in France, and being wounded on the Somme, he was discharged as unfit for further service at the Armistice.
During the second world war he served with the Royal Observer Corps. Recently, Mr. Holloway was presented with a cheque from the Yeomanry Old Comrade's Association for services to the Regiment.
Mr. Holloway, whose wife died four years ago, is survived by one son and one daughter. The funeral took place at the Parish Church, Montgomery yesterday week, the rector, the Rev. C. Llewellyn Jones, officiating at the service with Miss F. Brocton as organist."


George Edward Holloway certainly lived a very full life throughout his 77 years.

More to follow.....

From "The County Times" dated Saturday, October 20, 1900."

"IN A BOER LAAGER."

"MONTGOMERYSHIRE YEOMAN'S EXPERIENCE."

"The following letter, dated Ladybrand, September 15th, from Trooper George Holloway, of the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry, had been received by the gallant yeoman's father, Mr. Holloway, of Dudston.
"After remarking that he has enjoyed very good health throughout the campaign, and that the company got a fine reception at Ladybrand, the writer says:-
I daresay that you have been a little upset not having a letter from me for such a long time but most probably you have seen in the newspapers where I have been spending my holidays. I had been working about 7 months for the sake of my old country (Rule Brittania) and I thought it was getting high time I had a few holidays which commenced on Saturday August 25th. But it was not for me to decide where I should go to spend them or when I was to return to duty again, for I had to go and see the wonderful sights in the Boer Laager for 18 days at much less expense than going to Aberystwyth for the same time, but it was a great difference to spending holidays at home for a rule you don't care to see times coming when they are over, though you may guess that was not the feeling in my case.
But I must give the Boers their due, for they treated us as well as they possibly could, we got the same living as they were getting themselves, it was the same with us as their own burghers"what they had not got we could not have", we lived chiefly on beef and mealies and some days we had nothing but Indian corn, but anything they captured we had a share of. One day they captured a private convoy with three barrels of Cape brandy, biscuits, jam, sardines, salmon, and all kinds of luxuries, but they were not at all greedy with it for we had an equal share, some of us got quite as much brandy as we could manage.
The time passed away quickly for there were over thirty of us including five of my lot, 19 men and officers (including 1 doctor), of the Royal Irish Regiment Mounted Infantry, and 3 spies belonging to the Intelligence Department, two of whom escaped. Some of the Irish would give some queer jokes when they were
SERVING OUT THE INDIAN CORN
one would remark "Ah, sure to Jesus they must think we are chickens, another would remark, "Ah sure and faith, if we do eat morphies in Ireland, I don't see why they should feed us as pigs here, etc. When we were released (or rather they got tired of us) they gave us 10 oxen, 3 native drivers, and 3 days rations to go about 70 miles to Ladybrand. Such were my experiences in the Boer laager for which I feel none the worse for. Now I must tell you as to how I was captured.
When I wrote to you from Bloemfontein I said I was going with a flying column to Zand River, but when we were just starting out by the station there a telegram came to tell us to get there as fast as possible. So we were put on a train and hurried away at once in open trucks (then I received my last letter, the mailbag was thrown in just as we were starting away) to Ventersburg Weg Station, which we reached about 11 pm, and some 2000 to 3000 men arrived there in a very short time, for it was reported that the Boers were going to attack the station the following morning, but they were a bit too keen for as they got aware of us arriving there, and the following day we had an armoured train there. The Boers still stayed in the village afew miles out, our outposts being fired on occasionally. We stayed at the station that day to await the arrival of General Hamilton, who was taking charge of the column. The next day we marched out to the village, but when we arrived there we found that the Boers had left just before, so we waited there a day to get some provisions from the station, and about 250 Yeomanry with 2 15 pounders went after Mr. Boer. Wr got to where their laager had been the night before. We halted there for some time for luncheon and to find in what direction the Boers had gone. After luncheon we found their laager a few miles away in the hills, but it was getting too late in the day to attack, so the main body retired towards Ventersburg, and about 35 of us were sent out towards the laager
TO BURN DOWN A FARM
which the Boers had been firing at us from. We had got about three parts of the way to the farm when we saw a few men on the ridge a little way to the right. We halted a few minutes to see who it was, and they signalled to us that they were friends, so away we go again,bfor some distance when all at once we were fired on by our supposed friends. We dismounted and commenced to greeting our supposed friends with some leaden pills. We had been firing for a few minutes and were just starting to enjoy the sport for we could see we were making it rather hot for them - when to our surprise there came a shower of bullets right from the other side. On just looking round we could see them in scores on a ridge the opposite side, and in a few seconds after we got another hearty reception from the farm we were sent to burn I just turned my head around and I could see them coming from all directions, and the bullets were buzzing around us like hailstones
NOT THE LEAST BIT OF COVER
we were entirely in the open, so the officer gave the order to retire to a kopje about a mile back, so we made a dash for it, but just as we got to the foot of the kopje the Boers got on top of it. Then we had nothing to do but to race away after our main body, closely pursued by some hundreds of Boers. Wr had not gone far before my horse got a bullet through his hind leg, so I was caught after that for they were not many yards behind me where the shot was fired. They took my rifle from me and started me towards the laager, but in a few minutes after,bour big guns were putting shells amongst them and they were very soon turned back. They told us that they lost 19 killed, and that we had one officer killed."

Steve - your post is of extreme interest to me, as I have had George Edward Holloway, as a member of the Pembrokeshire Imperial Yeomanry, under scrutiny for some time. My understanding of his life has been greatly helped by a "Holloway" Family tree on Ancestry created by his great-granddaughter, Rebecca. This is the photo she has posted on his profile:



No doubt they are one and the same - the young lad is his son, George Henry Holloway (Rebecca's grandfather) born in 1911 and who went on to serve in WW2, an experience he survived. Based on the fact that Rebecca has kept both her parents private they are almost certainly both still alive and might be able to identify the nurse in your photo, I would put good money on the young man once again being his son.

I suspect Rebecca would dispute, as I do, some of the info given in the obituary newspaper article you have. At the time of the 1911 Census he was married and a farmer employing a cowman. He appears to have served in WW! in the Royal West Surrey Regiment as shown by the correspondence address on this medal roll (bearing a 2923 date) and the address for he and his family on the 1921 Census.




Finally some extracts from two letters he wrote home during the ABW as they appeared in The Montgomery County Times of 30th June 1900:



I had Rebecca on my list of people to contact. Your post caused me to look into his WW1 in more detail and it appears he spent most of it as a prisoner of war. So I have now moved Rebecca up the list.

Regards, David.

Steve - attached the evidence that George Edward Holloway was a PoW in WW1 - the German version and the British one (findable on Find My Past) . Both show he was captured at Bucquoy on 14th March 1917 - Bucquoy is 12 miles due south of Arras and based on an IWM photo was a ruin by June 1917. The documents also show he was wounded when captured having suffered a bullet to the left side. The real clincher besides the info given about his wife is his date of birth, 26th March 1879 - this matches exactly with the one given for him on the 1939 Register. He died in 1956.

I think his WW1 experience set him back. In 1911 he was a farmer in his own right employing a cowman. In 1921 he was a farm labourer working for his younger brother who had taken over his parents farm.

Why he served in the Queens Royal West Surrey Regiment is a bit of a mystery. He actually married in London when he mysteriously gave his occupation and that of his deceased father as "fireman" - I wonder if the officiating cleric misheard his Shropshire accent. His wife was Shropshire born and raised but at the time of their marriage was living in London. The only other tie he had with SE England was that his Mother-in-Law was born in Mitcham, Surrey but in 1860 she married in Herefordshire and spent the rest of her life living in Shropshire.The other info in the newspaper article is correct - his wife died in 1952 and he had a son & daughter.



Perhaps he did rejoin the Militia and become a CSM - by 1911 it would have been the TA so he could also have been a farmer. I think the Welsh Horse Regiment was the Welsh Horse Yeomanry which at the start of WW1 was sent to E Anglia to serve as part of the Anti-Invasion Force. In 1915 they were dismounted and sent to Gallipoli. After withdrawal to Egypt they became part of the 25th Battalion Royal Welch Fusiliers and went to Palestine. They eventually arrived on the Western Front in 1918.

David,

Many thanks for your link up with George Holloway's backstory. The research you have provided certainly sets the record straight from what was reported in the press clipping.
I'm glad I could add something of interest to your own case study which will benefit Rebecca aswell.

Cheers Steve