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World War 1 One ww1 wwII greatwar great 1914 1918 first battalion regiment
Pte. Felix Sayer Holme
British Army 15th Battalion (Bantams) Cheshire Regiment
from:Bolton, Lancashire
(d.20th Aug 1917)
Felix Sayer Holme was born on 19th April 1889 at 27 Mill Lane, West Derby, Liverpool, the ninth child of William and Mary Holme nee Allen, a family that had migrated to Liverpool from Garsdale in Yorkshire in 1877. His Father William Holme was a Cowkeeper and Felix worked in the milk distribution business after leaving school around 1903. The family moved to Bolton, Lancashire shortly afterwards.
Having been of slight build, but with immense strength, he joined the 15th Cheshire's, a Bantam Battalion raised at Birkenhead in Cheshire by the local Member of Parliament Alfred Bigland, and after undergoing basic initial training, Felix embarked for France in 1917. The 15th Cheshires fought along the Somme, and from the middle of August 1917, Felix found himself engaged in a brutal engagement at a place called The Knoll, close to Guillemont Farm near Lempire.
The 15th Cheshires, together with the Sherwood Foresters, had trained together for some weeks in preparation for what was to be the planned assault on The Knoll, defended as it was by well-dug-in German troops. During the fiercest of the fighting on the night of 19th August 1917, a number of his comrades were killed when a full-blown assault was made on The Knoll, and Felix was gravely injured by machine gun fire. He was conveyed to the 55th Casualty Clearing Station near Villers Faucon where he died of his wounds the following day.
Prior to his embarkation, Felix's wife Mary Jane Holme nee Fishwick was pregnant with their first child, and soon afterwards left their home in Bolton Lancashire to be closer to her family at Ravenstonedale in Westmoreland, where their son John Fishwick Holme was born. There is no evidence to suggest that Felix Sayer Holme ever saw his son.
He is buried at the beautiful British Cemetery at Villers Faucon.
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