Holme, Bertram Lester

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Bertram Lester Holme MA

Lieutenant, 12th (attached 8th) Royal Welsh Fusiliers
Died of wounds, 25 April 1916, aged 27
Buried at Amara War Cemetery, Iraq

CWGC registered (Son of Geoffrey Cosset Holme and Jessie Holme, of “Bryn Afon,” Penmon, Beaumaris, Anglesey, formerly of Angerton, Ormskirk, Lancs)

Bertram Lester Holme is not remembered on any of the Llandudno memorials. However, there is a family memorial to him in St. Tudno’s Churchyard. There is no evidence that Bertram Holme ever lived in Llandudno and this page is included for interest only.

Bertram was the son of Geoffrey Gosset Holme, a building contractor, and his wife Jenny Elizabeth Fanny (née Lester). He was born on 22 August 1888 at West Birkenhead. The Census for 1891 records the family of three living in Toxteth Park. Ten years later, Bertram (12) was a boarder at Lime House School, Wetheral, Carlisle; his parents and sister, Gladys (9) lived at Aughton, Lancashire. In January 1902 he went to Marlborough College and in 1906 to Queen’s College, Cambridge where he received an MA in 1909.

The Census of 1911 records Bertram’s parents living in Liverpool, and his widowed grandfather, George Holme (88) and an aunt and uncle living at Plas Trevor, Abbey Road, Llandudno. George Holme was a retired architect and surveyor and of some means. Of Bertram, there is no census record for he was in Russia, a tutor to the sons of the Admiral of the Black Sea Fleet and Governor of Sebastopol. On the outbreak of war, he was living in Saint Petersburg, holding a post in the Law School.

Bertram Holme returned to England and volunteered to join the Royal Welsh Fusiliers. He was gazetted as a second lieutenant on 18 December 1914 and allocated to the 12th (Service) Battalion that had formed at Wrexham in October 1914. The battalion moved to Tenby in February 1915 but on 10 April 1915, the battalion became a Reserve Battalion and many of its volunteers were sent to other battalions as reinforcements. Bertram Holme was attached to the 8th (Service) Battalion which was engaged against the Turkish Army in the Dardanelles. The War Diary of the battalion records that he joined it on 6 October 1915. On 8/9 January 1916, the battalion was evacuated from Helles to Lemnos, reaching Alexandria on 28 January and Port Said on 30 January.

Whilst in Egypt, Bertram had a temporary appointment as a staff captain but he rejoined his battalion when it was dispatched to Mesopotamia as part of a task force to reinforce troops attempting to relieve the town of Kut. He was wounded in action during the Battle of the Sanniyat on 10 April 1916 and died of his wounds on 25 April 1916. He was buried at Ali-Al-Garbi and re-interred after the war at Amara Military Cemetery. Commonwealth War Grave and other records indicate that his parents had retired to Penmon on Anglesey at the time of his death.

Known memorials:

• Marlborough College Roll of Honour
• St. Tudno’s Churchyard, Great Orme’s Head
• Plaque inside Penmon Church
• Llangoed War Memorial
• Masonic Great War Project (St. George’s Lodge of Harmony, No 32, West Lancashire)
• Coronation Park, Ormskirk
• Civic Memorial, Aughton