L/Cpl 49201 Vivian Cyril Holman

• Age: 27
• From: Burnley, Lancs
• Regiment: The King's (Liverpool Regiment) 20th Btn
• K.I.A Saturday 9th June 1917
• Commemorated at: Hop Store Cem, Vlamertinghe
  Panel Ref: I.A.57

Vivian Cyril was born in Burnley on the 07th January 1890, the son of John Holman and his wife Mahala Dinah Pinney (née Marshall) who were married in 1870 in Christow, near Exeter, Devon. He was baptised on 12th January 1902 at St Andrew with St Margaret Church, Burnley, his father, was a miner, of 11 Bracewell Street. 

The 1901 Census shows 11 year old Vivian living with his parents and siblings at 11 Bracewell Street, Burnley. His father John is shown to be a lead miner, born in Christow, Devon in 1848. His mother Mahala is shown as being born in Plymouth in 1855. His brothers Walter M. b.1880 Christow and Albert H. b.1888 Cardiff, are also present as is his elder sister Alma Whitham born in 1875. She is living at the house with her husband Tom Whitham and their two children Alma b.1896 and Frederick b.1897. 

His father John, died, aged 58, in 1909. 

By the time of the 1911 Census, Vivian now 21 and a Warehouseman for a cloth company is still living at 11 Bracewell Street. However, he is shown as Brother in Law and the head of the household is William Jenkinson and his wife Georgina, presumably another of Vivian's sisters. His widowed mother, “Malah”, is aged 57. 

He married Millicent Sarah Higson in the first quarter of 1915 at St Cuthbert's Church, Burnley.. 

Vivian's service records have not survived but we know that he enlisted in Preston and joined the East Lancashire Regiment as Private 27761 and was serving in the 20th Battalion of The King's Liverpool Regiment as Lance Corporal 49201 when he was killed in action on 09th June 1917, aged 27.

The Battalion War Diary records that on 09/06/1917:

"On relief, Battalion moved to Toronto Camp (G.18.d.5/7) via infantry track, arriving about 2 A.M. Casualties sustained during relief, 2 O.R. killed and 11 O.R. wounded".            

Vivian was one of the two other ranks referred to as killed. The other was Edmund Cecil Davies. They rest alongside each other at Hop Store Cemetery, Vlamertinghe where Vivian's headstone bears the poignant epitaph:

 “ONE OF ENGLAND’S SILENT HEROES”

Although Vlamertinghe (now Vlamertinge) was just within range of the German artillery for the greater part of the First World War, units of Allied heavy artillery and field ambulances occasionally stationed their headquarters there. The Hop Store Cemetery, opened in May 1915, was on the safer side of the village but it remained a small cemetery because of its position between a hedge and the premises of the hop store itself. The site was low and marshy, particularly at the west end, and was drained by the Royal Engineers early in 1917. There are now 251 First World War burials within the cemetery, almost exclusively of 1915 and 1917. The cemetery was designed by Sir Reginald Blomfield.

His death was reported in the Burnley Express on 23rd June 1917

ST CUTHBERT'S CHORISTER KILLED

About 6 weeks ago we recorded the death in action on April 23 of Private Albert Hector Holman of the Suffolk Regiment, who was connected with St Cuthbert's Church. During the first weekend Mrs V.C. Holman of 49 Fraser Street, received 3 letters conveying the sad intelligence that her husband, brother of Private Albert, has been killed instantaneously by shell fire on June 9th. He was Lance Corporal Vivian Cyril Holman (49201) of the King's Liverpool Regiment, and was 27 years of age. He joined the Army on July the 1st, 1916, and went out in October. His occupation before joining up was that of a Beamer at Oak Bank Mill, and he was a member of St. Cuthbert's choir and played cricket for the Sunday school team. Another brother is in the Lancashire and Cheshire artillery. The dead soldier came of a military family, for his grandfather was a Crimean veteran; two uncle's are army pensioners; some relatives are in the Australian contingent, two have been killed; three cousins, one of whom went down at the Battle of Jutland with the navy; and two others are serving; while Mrs Holden of 11 Bracewell Street, his mother, has a grandson in the RAMC, along with Dr Callam. Mrs Holman snr., had three sons of the Army at the time of the South African War, but they did not take part in that campaign.

Under date June 10th,  L.H. Ashcroft, a Blackburnian, a companion of the deceased soldier, wrote to Mrs Holman informing of the death of a husband, who was killed instantaneously "Early yesterday morning,"  he writes, "we had got relieved from the trenches and had gone a few miles when the Germans started sending their long-range shells over, one landed in the middle of this and put some of the men out, including Vivian and another lad from Burnley killed. Vivian did not suffer any pain because he was killed instantaneously. I might say he has been one of my best pals since I came out with him from the East Lancashire's. We were called up on the same day. All the boys in my platoon are sorry to lose Viv., for he was always willing to do his bit any time it came his turn."

Sergeant Frank Saul, a Prestonian, writing on June 11th, says: "Lance Corporal Holman was killed about 3 o'clock on Saturday morning." In expressing his deepest sympathy at Mrs Holman's irreparable loss, Sergeant Saul says: "Poor Vivian was a man with whom I had the closest relations, and I have lost a true friend and a good pal - one of the very best, and I have felt his loss more than I can express. You can rest assured he died a true soldier, always doing his duty cheerfully and well."

Albert now rests at Bethune Town Cemetery in France, where his headstone bears the epitaph:

SACRED TO THE MEMORY OF A DEAR HUSBAND AND FATHER; HIS WIFE & SON 

Grateful thanks are extended to the Burnley in the Great War website for permission to use the photograph of Vivian Cyril Holman.

We currently have no further information on Vivian Cyril Holman. If you have or know someone who may be able to add to the history of this soldier, please contact us.