1/1st Battalion Herefordshire Regiment
Arthur Vincent Holman was born in Prestbury in 1877, the only son of five children born to George and Amy Holman.
He was a volunteer in the active service company of the old Cheltenham Rifles and volunteered to serve with 2nd (Volunteer) Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, during the South African War, rising to the rank of sergeant.
He married Elsie Wilkins in 1908 and their daughter Joan was born in 1910. By then Arthur was an agent for Barton Court estate and living in Colwall Green. Whilst in Colwall he served in C Company of the Territorials in Ledbury. By the time of the Great War he was a Captain in 1/1st Herefordshire Regiment, part of the 53 (Welsh) Division, and landed at Suvla Bay, Gallipoli on 9 August 1915. In December 1915 he transferred with the Division to Egypt.
On 9 January 1917 he died of pneumonia, at his uncle’s home in Bayshill, Cheltenham, whilst on sick leave; he was 40 years of age. Captain Arthur Vincent Holman was buried next to his mother in the churchyard of St Mary’s Church, Prestbury.
The following obituary appeared in the Hereford Times on 13 January 1917:
“It is with great regret that we have to announce the death of Capt Arthur Vincent Holman 1st Herefordshire Regiment. He had only recently been invalided home suffering from severe strain which was affected by the heat and was sustained while serving with the regiment in Egypt. Unfortunately pneumonia supervened and he passed away at the age of 39. The news of his demise, which took place at the residence of his uncle in Cheltenham on Tuesday, will be sincerely regretted by officers and men of his battalion. He was a popular officer and one who took soldiering seriously. He was highly respected by the men of his company in particular. Captain Holman was better known in the Colwall and Ledbury districts as his home being at The Stone, Colwall and his Territorial duties engaging him with the Ledbury Company. He had seen a number of years serving with the Territorials and Volunteers, and was with the 1st Battalion of the Herefords on the East Coast after mobilisation. He proceeded with it to Gallipoli and was one of the few officers to escape injury. After the evacuation of the Peninsula, he moved with the Regiment to Egypt where he remained until his breakdown.
Captain Holman was of splendid physique and subsequent to the Boer War had professional interests at Colwall in connection with an estate and land agency. He leaves a widow and a daughter, with whom much sympathy will be felt, to mourn his untimely demise.“
In October 2004 the Commonwealth War Graves Commission approached Prestbury Parochial Council for permission to erect a standard CWGC headstone on the grave. Approval was finally given in 2007 and the new headstone put in place in July 2009. He is also remembered on the Cheltenham War Memorial.
CWGC Grave of Captain Arthur Vincent Holman