Born in the parish of St. John's, Lewes, Sussex.
Enlisted at Brighton on the 20th of February 1852.
Age: 17.
Height: 5' 6".
Trade: Butcher. (Grocer, on the muster rolls.)
Features: Fresh complexion. Blue eyes. Light brown hair.
Sentenced to six months imprisonment in Lewes Gaol and to forfeit 1 year 140 days service for fraudulent enlistment from the Militia, (vide Articles 76 and 96 of the Mutiny Act.) Service to count from the 1st of October 1854. (The forfeited service was later restored by order of the C. in C., as per War Office Authority, dated the 14th of September 1872.)
Served as Regimental Butcher in the Crimea and later in India during the Mutiny.
Embarked for India from Cork aboard the S.S. "Great Britain" on the 8th of October 1857.
The musters for July-September of 1858 show him as being "On Field Service" from September of this period.
In action against the rebels at Zeerapore on the 29th of December 1858 and at Baroda on the 1st of January 1859.
He was re-engaged for 12 years' further service at Aldershot on the 10th of January 1867.
He is shown on the Regimental "Married roll" from the 22nd of May 1857. Wife, Ellen Holland. They had four children at the time of his discharge, when he said they intended to live in Birkenhead.
The India Office records show a daughter, Theresa Jane, was born at Secunderabad, India, on the 3rd of July 1863, to him and his wife Helen [sic]. She was baptised on the 27th of July by the Revd. W. Brugel, Chaplain.
Discharged, "by his own request", from Dublin on the 20th of July 1874.
Served 21 years 76 days.
In Turkey and the Crimea: 2 years
In India: 7 years 3 months.
Conduct and character: "very good." Seven times entered in the Regimental Defaulter's book. Once tried by Court-martial.
Imprisoned in "Cells." 3-5 of March 1865.
He was granted a pension of 12d.per day.
Documents confirm the award of the Crimea and Indian Mutiny medals and the Long Service & Good Conduct medal with a gratuity.
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman, Sebastopol, and the Turkish medal.
Mutiny medal without clasp.
Awarded the Long Service & Good Conduct medal on the 1st of February 1873, with a gratuity of £5.
Member of the Balaclava Commemoration Society in 1879.
He did not sign the Loyal Address to the Queen in 1887 nor does he appear on the list of those invited by T.H. Roberts to be present at his Fleet Street offices for the Jubilee celebrations held there in June of 1897.
1881 Census
Grosvenor Road (Rooms over Stables) Claughton cum Grange, Cheshire.
The 1881 Census show him as a Coachman (Domestic), aged 45, born in Lewes, Sussex, with his wife Ellen, 39, born in Tipperary, Nenagh. There were two sons and a daughter in the family, aged from 13 years to three years.
After his wife's death he lived at Ormskirk, where he was a cab-driver at the Commercial Hotel. In 1892 or 1893 he was taken to Tranmere to reside with his daughter, a Mrs. Mason.
He was then admitted to the Chelsea Royal Hospital as an In-Pensioner on the 1st of April 1894, but reverted to Out-pension on the 1st of April of 1900. He is later believed to have lived at Croydon.
(At the time of his entry into Chelsea Royal Hospital he was 62 years of age, and "could only do occasional work..." There is no mention of any family ties.)
1901 Census
Address?
The 1901 Census shows Holland aged 67, born Lewes, living in London. His occupation is shown as "Formerly a Coachman, Ret[ired] groom, not domestic". [RM]
Death registration
A man of this name is shown in the GRO records as dying at Hinkley, Leicestershire, during the July-September quarter of 1905, aged 73 years.
In an Account and Address Book formerly used by James W. Wightman when Secretary of the Balaclava Society, his name is crossed through as though "Deceased," but there is no indication of date. The address column merely shows him as "Liverpool" and the Letter Book as a letter being sent to Sergeant Major Barker on the 13th of February 1880, asking "if he knew of Holland's address..."