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Queen’s South Africa 1899-1902, 3 clasps, Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal (9604 Pte. H. Waring, 45th. Coy. Imp: Yeo:)

Holt Waring served with the 45th (Dublin Hunt) Company, 13th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry in South Africa during the Boer War and was taken Prisoner of War at well known surrender of the 13th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry at Lindley on 31 May 1900. The 45th, otherwise known as the Irish Hunt Company, comprising five officers and 116 other ranks, departed from Dublin for Holyhead on Monday 13 March 1900 on board the steamer Hibernia. There they entrained for Liverpool, where they sailed for Cape Town on board the SS Montrose.

Holt Waring, of Waringstown, Co. Down, was born on 26 May 1877, the son of Colonel Thomas Waring and Fanny Waring (nee Tucker). He was husband of Margaret Waring of Waringstown, County Down, and brother-in-law of Lieutenant Samuel Barbour 'Barrie' Combe, also of the North Irish Horse. Having served in the Boer War, Waring was commissioned as a lieutenant on 17 July 1903 and joined the North of Ireland Imperial Yeomanry. In July 1908 he joined the newly-formed North Irish Horse. He was promoted to captain on 6 February 1909 and major on 12 December 1914. Waring had joined the newly formed D Squadron of the North Irish Horse, which arrived in France on 2 May 1915, attached to the 51st (Highland) Division. Later that month he took command of C Squadron of the North Irish Horse, which had been in France since the beginning of the war. On 4 August 1916 Major Waring was attached to the 13th Battalion, Royal Irish Rifles. Major Waring led his men when the 36th Ulster Division and the 16th Irish Division attacked at the Battle of Messines in June 1917. Two months later he took command of the 13th Rifles when Colonel Maxwell was wounded at the Battle of Passchendaele. In November 1917 the 11th and 13th Royal Irish Rifles were amalgamated to form the 11/13th Battalion. When it was disbanded in February 1918 Waring was moved to the 12th Royal Irish Rifles. On 21 March 1918, the Germans launched a massive offensive. The 36th Division, and the 12th Royal Irish Rifles in particular, sustained heavy casualties. The survivors were then sent into the lines in the Ypres Salient in the area around Kemmel Hill, just as the Germans commenced an offensive in that sector. On the night of 12/13 April, Waring led a company of 12th Rifles in a counter attack, along with a company of the 9th Royal Irish Fusiliers led by the Lieutenant Colonel Philip Kelly. Their position restored, dawn brought more determined attacks by the Germans on the trenches held by the 12th Rifles. That attack, and others during the day, were repulsed. At dawn on 15 April, the Germans launched an artillery and infantry attack and broke through on the left flank. Waring led a combined force of the remnants of the 12th Rifles and 1st Royal Irish Fusiliers, and though they failed to win back the ground lost, they stopped the German advance. Holt Waring died of wounds sustained during this action.

Waring was buried at Lindenhoek, east of Mount Kemmel (map reference 28.N.27.c.9.5). His comrades placed a cross over his grave which read: "In loving memory of Major Holt Waring. 13th Royal Irish Rifles. Attd 12th Royal Irish Rifles. Died of wounds, 15.4.18." After the war his body was exhumed and re-buried at Wulverghem-Lindenhoek Road Military Cemetery, Heuvelland, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, grave II.E.7. The gravestone inscription reads:
MAJOR
H. WARING
ROYAL IRISH RIFLES
15TH APRIL 1918

Major Holt Waring's 1914-15 Star Trio are on display at the regimental museum. The victory lacks the MID emblem and the death plaque is either not with the Museum or not on display.