Holroyde, JS
(1898 - 1917)
Key Facts
DATE OF BIRTH:
20th January 1898
YEARS ATTENDED THE COLLEGE:
1911 - 1914
HOME ADDRESS WHEN AT THE COLLEGE:
Greenhayes, Bromley, Kent
REGIMENT
Royal Flying Corps
FINAL RANK:
2nd Lieutenant
DATE OF DEATH:
10th May 1917
AGE AT DEATH:
19
WHERE HE DIED (or was wounded)
Cambrai
LOCATION OF GRAVE OR MEMORIAL:
Solesmes Communal Cemetery. C 2/3
2nd Lieutenant John Sheffield Holroyde
John was born in Bexley on January 20th 1898, the only child of solicitor William Holroyde and his wife, Edith, who were both originally from Halifax in Yorkshire. He joined the College in the spring of 1911, at the age of 13, from Tonbridge Prep School. After just over three years at Dulwich he left in the summer of 1914, whilst a member of the Modern Lower Fifth.
That summer saw the declaration of war, and as a result John, despite being just 16, signed up as a member of the armed forces, spending a short amount of time in the Kent Motor Cyclists before switching to the London Scottish Battalion. In early 1915 he went to Sandhurst, passing out that November to take up a commission. He was attached to the Royal Flying Corps, going over to France for the first time with them in March 1917, at which point he joined 55th Squadron. On May 10th he was serving as observer and gunner in a plane which was returning to base near Cambrai, having been one of six involved a long-distance reconnaissance mission, when they came under fire from German aircraft. Although he was successful in bringing down one of the enemy machines, his own plane was also brought down by sustained German fire, crashing heavily not far from where they had just brought down the enemy aircraft.
