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Private Robert Holmes
Unit : HQ Company, 1st Parachute Battalion
Army No. : 5891275
Robert Holmes was born on the 17th December 1922. He enlisted in the Northamptonshire Regiment on the 30th April 1941, before transferring to the Parachute Regiment, completing Parachute Course No.16 at RAF Ringway from the 22nd to 30th June 1942. He then served with the 1st Parachute Battalion, and at the time of Arnhem was in Headquarters Company. The following was published in a newspaper:
When Allied paratroops were preparing to leave Arnhem, Private Robert Holmes, 54, Hastilar Road, Sheffield, stopped behind in a cellar to tend the wounded. "He was heating soup for 26 men, and he said he was going to stay no matter what happened, and see that they had food" said a comrade.
His friend, Private Horace Butler, 62 Aughton Crescent, Woodthorpe Estate, Sheffield, told "The Star" of the last few hours with Private Holmes. "There were 36 more wounded in another cellar, and Rob said he could not leave them, as they were unable to look after themselves. He had given himself the task of looking after them, and nothing would move him from it. He asked me, if I got back to Sheffield, to let his parents know."
Private Butler saw them as soon as he arrived in Sheffield and told them of their son's heroism. Two days later they received notification that their son was missing. Mrs. Holmes told "The Star" "It was just a thing that Bob would do."
Both Private Holmes who is 21 years of age, and his friend were employed at Messrs. Hadfields, Ltd., Vulcan Road.
Holmes was taken prisoner on the 26th September 1944. He arrived at Stalag XIIA, Limburg, on the 1st October, where he was given the POW number 92008. He left on the 22nd and arrived three days later at Stalag IVB, Mühlberg, departing on the 30th October and arriving at Stalag IVC, Wistriz, on the 10th November, where he remained until the end of the war, working at a coal mine near Brüx.
My thanks to Deborah Holmes, Bob Hilton and John Howes for this account.