JS Holroyde Mother Letter

29^th May /21

Dear Sir,

In reply to your letter received yesterday, I am glad to give you the following details about our son’s career. He was educated at Tonbridge Preparatory School & afterwards at Dulwich College, which he left at the age of 16, when War broke out, & joined the Kent [2] Motor Cyclists, whence he transferred to the London Scottish. In 1915 he entered Sandhurst & passed out the same year, being then posted to the East Yorks as Sec. Lt. Later he became attached to the R.F.C. after some training in England during which period he obtained his 2^nd star in Jan. 1917 he went out to [3] a fighting squadron in France the following week. He was killed in action east of Cambrai on May 10^th 1917.

His squadron commander wrote:

“He was out with 5 other machines on a long distance reconnaissance. They had to fight their way out & back. Just as they turned to come back the machine in [4] which your son was was hit by one of the hostile machines. It fell out of the formation, & was seen diving steeply, with smoke issuing from it. A German machine dived down on it & your boy opened fire & shot it down. Both machines were seen to crash almost in the same field. It shows wonderful coolness on your son’s part. He knew a considerable amount about fighting & must have realized there was very little chance of their reaching the ground before the machine broke up, & yet he was able to shoot accurately, & so bring down his opponent.”

He was at first reported to be “missing” & it was not until Dec. 1917 that he was officially reported as killed in action. Trusting you may be able to make use of the above

Yours truly,

Edith Holroyde

Photo enclosed