(John Hollick was the younger
brother of Mary Elizabeth Hollick, and the best mate of (and best man to) Harry
Burgess, featured in “Harry Burgess & Mary Eliz Hollick” under “Chrons –
South Aust”)
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# 9675 Pte John T. Hollick
The Somerset Light Infantry
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John Thomas
Hollick was born in a row of workingmen’s terrace houses in Saltley Birmingham
in July 1895, the eldest son of John Hollick, a wagon repairman in the Saltley
Sheds of Midland Railway, and his wife Sarah. At the time he had just the one
sister, but later came two more sisters and three brothers.
John grew
up in this part of Birmingham, and by the time he was 15 (in 1911) he’d joined
his father in the local railways as a Lorry Boy, but not long after he turned
18 he enlisted in the Somerset Light Infantry, where he teamed up with his
future brother-in-law Harry Burgess and, as told by the lady herself, “...they
became good mates, and he took Harry home with him on leave...”, where he met
John’s elder sister Mary Elizabeth [‘Lizzie’], and the two of them “...began
stepping out.”
However, it’s
not clear why John hadn’t joined The Warwickshires, as The Somerset’s were
based way down in Taunton, although after the war he married a girl from
Wellington Somerset. This, and the fact that John’s service number is only 19
before Harry’s, suggests that the two lads joined up very close together in Dec
1913, possibly the same day, and were already mates, John aged 18y-6m, and
Harry 25y-7m. (This is also confirmed in the 1919 newspaper article later.)
So, by Jan
1914 John and Harry were together in ‘C’ Company, and in the Goojerat Barracks,
Colchester Essex, where a photo was taken of them and a few other mates, dated
24/4/1914. (Harry sent this to his brother Willie Burgess, then stationed in
Ireland with The Cornwall’s.)
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THE WESTERN FRONT
The
following draws on the records of The Somerset Light Infantry (SLI), The Red
Cross, and other sources online...
29/7/1914 – Preliminary mobilisation of the Regiment ordered, advance
party sent to Felixstowe to guard ferries and dig in, in case of a German raid,
rest confined to barracks, kits packed.
4/8/1914 – England declared war on Germany as a consequence of Germany
invading Belgium. John’s Regiment ordered to mobilise.
6th to 16th Aug 1914 – Reservists arriving, training, marching, kit
issues, fire drills, inspections. One SLI soldier writes – “Parade at 8am for a
route march, quite a hot one. Back at about 11.45am, wash and clean rifle. Kit
inspection after lunch. Pack up sea kitbag. Read and talk, bed early.” Another
writes “...getting steady pay, if we go to the front we get £5 Blood Money, the
Govt offer you that, at the same time hoping you don’t live to claim it.”
17/8/1914 – The SLI left Colchester for Harrow where the rest of the 4th
Divn was collecting, camping on the playing fields of Harrow School.
21/8/1914 – The 4th Divn left Harrow for Southampton, “...breakfast of
bully beef and biscuit ...left camp at 6.30pm and marched to Sudbury Stn. We
were a happy crowd and sang at the top of our voices... could not have been in
better spirits if we were all going on leave. People lined the streets and
cheered us on our way... [that night] slept on the upper deck packed tightly
together like a flock of sheep... so crammed on board we couldn’t get our feet
straight...”
The Somersets entrained at 7pm and arrived at Southampton at 11.30pm,
embarked on the ‘Braemar Castle’ at midnight.
22/8/1914 – “Sea smooth and
weather excellent...”, and they disembarked at Le Havre, having waited till
near midnight due to low tides, when “...the French pilot made many bad shots
at berthing...”
23/8/1914 – About 2am they marched six miles “...through town and up a
steep hill to rest camp [which was] very dirty and rather fruity [smelly?] when
the sun got up... great welcome from the French people... giving us flowers...”
Then it was back to the station
in the evening, and “...the Colonel read to us the King’s message to his troops
also telling us that not many hours distant we should be facing the enemy [and
we] cheered and the noise frightened the Colonel’s horse which reared up and
threw him...”
The troops then re-boarded the
trains “...forty men to a wagon which does not give much room... men packed in
cattle trucks but made the best of it, imitating the bellowing and bleating of
oxen and sheep...”
24/8/1914 – Finally away about 2am “...not much prospect of getting any
sleep with someone’s boots in my face... 20 mins rest at Rouen... coffee and a
nip of brandy... bully beef and biscuits... [after] 17 hours crammed in cattle
trucks we marched 8 miles to a village... slept the night in a shed... our
‘leave atmosphere’ has evaporated [!!] but we are all very chirpy. What is
happening? No one had any idea!”
The bigger situation on Aug 24th was that,
after holding the Germans at Mons, the British Expeditionary Force - the BEF,
the “Contemptible Little Army” according to the Kaiser - and the French were
falling back towards Paris at the mercy of artillery and cavalry, and the
commanders decided to make a stand in the Le Cateau area to enable them to
regroup. At this time the 4th Divn (inc the SLI) was in process of arriving
from Le Havre, and had begun deploying, coming into contact with the enemy, and
they had no choice but to make a stand, even though not fully assembled,
lacking cavalry, ambulances, engineers, heavy artillery, and the ammunition
train.
25/8/1914 – This day, and the following day when John appears to have
been wounded, the SLI was in the thick of this battle around Le Cateau, trying
to hold the line so that other forces could re-group as a consequence of the
overall `Retreat From Mons’, but it’s unclear from the reports and diaries who
was specifically where - “A midday thunderstorm made the ground and trenches
boggy... a trail of refugees from the towns... some German shelling, everywhere
digging in, Somersets stripped to the waist, steam rising, putting up barb wire
defences.”
26/8/1914 – Before dawn “...rifle, machinegun, and shellfire... the
Rifle Brigade [and the] Somersets were pushed forward to the southern end of
Beauvois [2kms NW of Caudry] to hold the enemy... while the other two
Battalions moved south... men rather nervous at this first experience of
shrapnel fire...”
Sections of the SLI (inc John’s ‘C’ Company under Major Thoyts) then
occupied “...the eastern end of the quarries [near La Carriere]... German
infantry and machineguns advanced to close range... Huns started a systematic
traversing fire... three shells burst over us in quick succession and hit three
men and alarmed the rest horribly...”
Some units then advanced “...in extended order in spite of the heavy
machinegun fire, up a slope [to a] hedge where we lay down and opened fire on
the advancing Germans... as taught on the ranges... only difference was now we
had something alive to fire at... strangely enough none of us minded killing
another human being... we too were taking casualties, men being killed right
and left of me...”
“...it was shocking to hear and see the shells bursting all around us.
My God, we could see thousands of Germans swarming out of a wood... in front
about a thousand yards ahead... started dropping them like wheat before the
scythe but still they came... but it was not the thousands of infantry that
were doing the damage, it was the shrapnel. They had the range splendidly...
shells bursting all around us and expecting to get your head blown off at any
minute.”
“The Somersets withstood the onslaught... but lost heavily... our chaps
kept dropping and some of the sights were awful... a youngster saying to me `I
don’t think the beggars could hit me if they tried’ and at that instant a shell
caught him in the forehead and his head was shattered.”
Then nearby “...they suddenly opened up a heavy shrapnel fire on us with
perfect range. A small part of our men got up and ran but I am sorry to say
were mostly knocked out. Their attitudes struck us as grotesque but [their]
moaning and cries of pain were terrible as we could do nothing for them except
bandage a few and leave them.”
John’s ‘C’ Company was pulled back and it and the rest of the Brigade
took up position along the Carriere Ridge, then just after midday “...nobody
left on our left flank and our supports gone... we started to crawl back the 50
yards to the old quarry... of the 49 that I took into action I had only 12
[able bodied?] left, 37 killed or wounded, so no disgrace in retiring.”
At about 3pm “...it was seen that to hold the Carriere position any
longer would lead to the Brigade being taken [from behind]... instructions to
retire to Ligny [3kms SW of Caudry]... Somersets to the east of the village... shrapnel
fire on our troops was very severe... took up defences... attacked by German
infantry twice but on each occasion was repulsed with heavy loss.”
“Casualties were collected and placed in the church. Unfortunately the
Divisional Field Ambulances... had been held back by GHQ and were at St
Quentin. The wounded could not be evacuated, although Capt Holden... managed to
collect a few carts in which he placed some of the worst cases and despatched
then southwards towards St Quentin. For some inexplicable reason these carts
were turned back to Ligny under the direction of a staff officer...”
“There was not a man in my section hit till about five o’clock, when the
Germans opened upon us with their machineguns. This was about the time when
Major Thoyts was severely wounded by a shell, killing his horse outright...”
Then, at about 6.30pm one soldier’s diary says “...the Germans made
another attack with their machineguns, and at this moment they swept the whole
lot of us out... I was wounded in both legs, twice in the left arm, and clean
through the mouth which left me helpless on the ground... unable to move. Just
getting dark and the Germans came through us and handled us very rough. Then a
German officer spoke to me in good English and said `You are a prisoner in our
hands [and we will] send you back to hospital, where you will be treated and
then sent to Germany.”
(Major Francis Thoyts died the
same day of his wounds and is buried in a War Cemetery in France.)
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26/8/1914 is the date that John was wounded and taken POW according to his POW records with the Red Cross, and it’s also the date that Lizzie
Burgess always said her Harry was wounded and captured. But while both were taken
together, for some reason they were soon split up, and John was taken to
Doberitz POW Camp and he didn’t see Harry again until after the war.
“Doberitz was a large camp 8 miles [west] from
Berlin holding Russian, Polish, French, and British prisoners. It attracted
worldwide press attention after British Private William Lonsdale punched a
German guard in November 1914 and was sentenced to death. Lonsdale and 250
fellow captives had failed to assemble quickly enough for the Germans and a
general fracas then erupted between British prisoners and the guards. Bowing to
international pressure, the death sentence was commuted to 20 years in January
1915, followed by an outright pardon from the Kaiser, seizing the propaganda
opportunity.” (Ex WIKI online)
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John would be moved about at least twice more before his war ended in
1918, but his time as a POW is best told by himself, in this article in the Birmingham
Gazette of 3rd Jan 1919 -
ARMS AND LEGS TIED TO A POLE
BIRMINGHAM SOLDIER AND HIS CAPTIVITY
FOUR
YEARS IN GERMANY
It was a strange turn of the fortunes of war which resulted in British
soldiers being rendered hors de combat in the very earliest hours of the
fighting in August 1914.
Two of these men, Pte J. T. Hollick and Pte H. Burgess, of the Somerset
Light Infantry, are spending a well earned furlough at the home of the former,
646 Washwood Heath Rd, Ward End, after four years and four months of life in
German prison camps.
Happily both look remarkably well in health, but a photo of Pte Hollick
taken in Germany tells a significant story of scant and unwholesome rations.
Disembarking at Le Havre on 22 August 1914, the Somersets went into action on
the morning of the 26th, and by four o’clock of that day Ptes
Hollick and Burgess, who had been close friends from the time of their
enlistment eight months previously, were wounded. They were taken prisoner and
sent to different camps, and did not meet again until their release from
captivity.
One of Pte Hollick’s earliest experiences of ill treatment was at the end
of 1914, when for apparently no offence of any kind he was tied by the arms and
legs to a pole, and thus made to stand to attention for two hours.
Afterwards he “got his own back” from a brutal sentry, and was made to
subsist on bread and water for his pains. A typical British soldier, when
surrounded by four sentries after escaping from Michendorf [ap 20kms SW of
Berlin] in August 1916, he remained silent when asked for an explanation, and
was let off with only a threat that his parcels would be stopped for 14 days.
The threat was not put into force; a parcel that had arrived just before his
return was given him.
It was on 10 November at Rummelsberg [ap 5kms east of Berlin] that
Hollick and his fellow prisoners first became assured of the prospect of peace.
A sentry went among them and said “We’ll have peace very shortly.” The next day
the sentry has an English paper and a German paper. The latter contained the
news of the armistice, and with infinite labour and the assistance of dictionaries
and phrase books the glad tidings were translated.
There was however, no outburst of enthusiasm. The sentry had taken the
papers into camp at considerable risk to himself, and the British soldiers he
had thus helped to a vision of home refrained from any action which would have
led to his being punished.
Pte Burgess had not heard of the armistice when he escaped from Heuberg
on 13 November, and was overjoyed to learn of it when he reached Strassburg
three days later.
“When I was captured”, Pte Burgess said, “I was given two crutches and
had to walk 70 miles. Afterwards I lay in six inches of water in a transport
wagon for four hours. I was kicked in the ribs and hit in the back with a
stick. Upon arriving at Cassel a number of us were exhibited around the town.
“We slept like pigs and we lived like pigs. We were full of vermin, and
hundreds of men died of disease and brutality of all kinds.” He remembered
distinctly the visit of Mt Gerard, the American Ambassador, to the camp, and
said that the conditions afterwards improved somewhat.
Pte Hollick recollected seeing a visitor who was either Mr Gerard or his
secretary and who gave each prisoner a cigar.
Privates Hollick and Burgess will rejoin their regiments on 27 February.
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Getting on with life came quickly on their return, as late in 1919, down
in his girl’s home town of Wellington in Somerset (about 10kms SW of Taunton),
John married Helena Tooze, the daughter of a local wool factory worker, and on
Xmas Eve he was best man to his mate Harry Burgess when he married Lizzie
Hollick in Birmingham.
After this John and Helena settled in the Walsall area of Staffordshire
(just north of Birmingham) for a while, where he worked as a wagon repairer for
Great Western Rail but, looking for a better life, his parents and younger
siblings emigrated to South Australia in 1926, and at the end of 1927 John and
Helena followed (as did his mate Harry Burgess and his young family in 1928).
But this huge change, and the arrival of The Depression, saw some of
John’s brothers return to England, saying that - “If we’re going to be
unemployed, we might as well be unemployed back home!” – and in mid 1933 John
and Helena followed. John and Harry, the two old WW1 mates, would never see each
other again.
It’s assumed that somewhere between the mid 1930s and the late 1960s,
John and Helena settled back in her home town of Wellington in Somerset, but
don’t appear to have ever had children. They died there a few months apart in
the early 1970s and are buried together in the local cemetery.
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