Genealogical war memorials of Bournemouth’s fallen
Hill 60: April 24th, 1915
Introduction
Tales from the Front (32) tells the story of Alfred Charles Holley, a native of Victorian Bournemouth, who fought in the Great War. Private Holley had already served with the First Battalion, Dorset Regiment, but returned to civil life. By April 1915, however, the war had summoned him back to the ranks. He reenlisted and served in Belgium, to fall at Hill 60, a small mound of huge strategic importance to both sides.
Tales from the Front (32): Background
Workhouse
Holley’s grandfather, Samuel, a plasterer and tailor, lost his wife and perhaps the ability to maintain his family. They all entered Romsey Workhouse. Life there may have suited him. He stayed for almost fifteen years. The Guardians gave him responsibility: tending the pigs. But his children may have found the experience daunting. Holley’s father became a bricklayer and moved far to the west, settling in a suburb of Dorchester. Here, he married, sharing his new home with his in-laws. After their first child, Holley’s parents moved to Boscombe (Freemantle), where they had several others. Perhaps because of his stay in the workhouse, Holley’s father may have encouraged his sons to seek employment as early as possible. They worked as shop assistants: grocer, butcher, baker. Even at 14, Holley had a job, working as a milk boy. After about fifteen years in Boscombe, Holley’s father returned to Southampton with his family.
Independence
In 1903, Holley enlisted with the First Dorsets, giving his occupation as stoneman (or storeman). He may have exaggerated his age. He enlisted at Southampton, but gave his address as Bournemouth, perhaps not staying long with his family after their recent move. At enlistment, he stood 1.62 metres in height. He enjoyed good health according to the medical report. After his service period, perhaps in 1910, he returned to civilian life and married. His wife, daughter of an agricultural labourer, came from the district in Southampton to which his family had moved. At the time of his enlistment, the First Dorsets served in India. Holley, therefore, would have soldiered abroad before his return. In 1911, he had secured work as a stableman. He, his wife, and his daughter lived next door to his parents in Shirley, Southampton. A son would arrive before the Great War began.
Tales from the Front (32): Hill 60
Moonscape nightmare
April 17, 1915. After many days of quiet tunnelling, the British exploded five enormous mines underneath Hill 60. The mound now consisted of a smoking, cratered moonscape populating the saucer-shaped interior. As men clawed their way to the summit, they stepped not on earth, but on disinterred remains of men buried months ago, now churned up by the blast. Then came the German response. For days on end, iron rained from the sky. Men dug out colleagues buried alive by one salvo, only to see them vanish by the next. Their rifles overheated and jammed; their company of a hundred withered to a desperate twenty. Afterwards, survival might make them feel accomplished, a shared success, even if by so few. But they might feel their minds begin to fracture. “The strain was awful,” one survivor recalled, “we cried like children and were completely broken up.” The horror! Imagine. The horror!
April 24th, 1915
On April 22nd, Sergeant Ernest Shephard noticed carrier pigeons flying from Ypres into the German lines. Spy messages. This showed how the tiny world of Hill 60 connected with a larger one: to protect Ypres and the Channel ports. The next day, the Dorsets stood to arms almost the whole time, in preparation for action. Even though they did not then take up positions on the hill, positioned just to its west, they would have felt in the thick of the fighting. On that day, they incurred casualties: 37 wounded, 6 killed. Even at this stage of industrial slaughter, the two sides continued to exchange humorous remarks. On the 24th, for the second time that week, they did not get relieved, continuing to stand in their trenches. Shephard reports no action that day, but the diary lists 17 wounded and 2 killed, one of them perhaps Alfred Charles Holley.
Aftermath
After his death, Holley’s parents and siblings continued to live in Shirley, having moved within the area. Two daughters worked as cable makers, perhaps a continuation of women having industrial jobs as the war had demanded. Holley’s mother died not long after this world war, but his father almost saw the next. His widow remarried in 1921, her husband a painter, ten years her senior, a change from her first marriage to Holley, six years or so younger. They continued to live in Southampton.
The next day, the Dorsets at last secured their relief, moving back from the front line. They caught a spy snooping at one of the artillery batteries. Rumours swirled around. The second Battle of Ypres had begun, further to the north. On their return to Hill 60, danger from whizbangs and shrapnel resumed. Worse lay ahead. The men had already received primitive gas masks.
Takeaway
Tales from the Front (32) has explored the background, life, and military career of Alfred Charles Holley (1887-1915). A native of Bournemouth, he resumed his service with the First Dorsets at the beginning of the Great War. On April 24th, Private Holley, father of two small children, perished beside Hill 60, a place where earth, bone, and iron fused into a single landscape.
‘Tales from the Front’
A collection of personal stories honouring the natives of Victorian Bournemouth who gave their lives on the battlefield and the regiments with which they served. Blending social and military history with genealogical insight, it explores their roots, families, occupations, and the ultimate sacrifices they made for their country.
The posts weave genealogical data together with eyewitness accounts found in war diaries, contemporary press coverage, and official military histories. The series offers a powerful and intimate portrait of Bournemouth’s wartime heroes offset with live accounts of battlefield action.
Serving as a companion and continuation of Victorian Bournemouth, Tales from the Front forms part of News from the Past: History for the Rest of Us.
References
For references and engagement, please get in touch. Main primary sources: here and here (subscriptions needed). For War Diaries, go here. See also here. The featured picture shows an imagined scene—genealogical information based on available sources.
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