Service No: 1454 – 1st Battalion Royal Warwickshire Regiment
Sergeant George Holtham, was killed in action on 20th June 1917 serving with the 1st Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment. He was 26 years old and had worked for a firm of manufacturing chemists before joining the Army in February 1909.
George was born on 18th April 1891 in Moreton Morrell, Warwickshire one of eight known children born to parents Joseph Holtham, a traction engine driver and Eliza Ann Bennett. The family moved from Moreton Morrell to Minworth between 1891 and 1894, and then to Holly Cottages, New Street, Castle Bromwich between 1901 and 1911. George attended Castle Bromwich Council School and enlisted in the Army in February 1909.
De Ruvigny’s Roll of Honour notes that on the outbreak of war, in August 1914, he was serving at Scutari in northern Albania. He proceeded with his regiment to France in September 1914 and was wounded at Ypres on 24th October 1914, when he was hit in the small of the back by a bullet, which then travelled up to his shoulder before exiting.
The Warwick and Warwickshire Advertiser of 28th November 1914 included extracts from a letter he sent from hospital to his mother in Castle Bromwich explaining the circumstances of his injury:
George was wounded again in November 1915, and then gassed in December 1916. Following recovery in January 1917 he returned to France and was killed in action on 20th June 1917.He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial.
George is also listed the altar of remembrance on the village green, which was unveiled on 11th November 1927 by the Dowager Duchess of Bradford and his elder brother, Naval Stoker, William Holtham.
