Enlisted into the 90th Foot at Dublin on the 25th of August 1848. Regimental No. 3105.
Age: 20.
Height: 5' 7".
Trade: None shown.
Transferred to the 4th Light Dragoons on the 1st of May 1852.
Sent to Scutari on the 15th of December 1854 and rejoined the regiment on the 15th of January 1855.
From Private to Corporal: 20th of December 1855.
Corporal to Sergeant: 1st of October 1857.
Appointed Sergeant i/c Musketry on the 1st of October 1863.
Embarked for India from Portsmouth aboard the "Serapia" on the 15th of October 1867.
"Invalided" to England aboard the "Serapia" on the 12th of January 1871 to the 14th of February 1871.
Died in the Royal Hospital, Netley, on the 1st of March 1871.
His credits of £5/9/5d and savings of £5/0/1d were "handed over to his widow..."
The muster rolls show his "Wife, Charlotte, and six children", as being sent to Canterbury...
Entitled to the Crimean medal with clasps for Alma, Balaclava, Inkerman and Sebastopol.
He was awarded the Long Service & Good Conduct medal on the 22nd of June 1868, with a gratuity of £5.
A son, Arthur, entered the Royal Military Asylum at Chelsea on the 4th of June 1871, aged 7 years and 10 months. His father was shown as "Dead" at this time and his mother, Charlotte, as "Still alive." He died there on the 5th of August 1871.
A group of three medals, comprising of the Crimean medal with four clasps and impressed naming to "Corporal R. Holland. 4th Lt. Drgns." Long Service & Good Conduct medal to "Serjt. Instr. of Muskty. Richard Holland. 4th Hussars." and the Turkish Crimean medal (Sardinian type) with engraved naming, was sold at a Spink's auction on the 6th of July 1988. Said to be contained in a glass-fronted case and having a silver plate engraved: Richard Holland, Sergeant Major. Born at Lichfield, Staffordshire, 1831, son of Richard Barnard Holland of that city. Enlisted into the 90th Regiment of Light Infantry Nov. 1st 1849; transferred April 30th 1852 to the 4th Light Dragoons (afterwards renamed 4th Hussars) promoted to Corporal, December 24th 1855, Sergeant Nov. 1st 1857. Sergeant-Major and Instructor of Musketry, Oct, 7th 1862. Served in the Crimean Campaign, August 2nd 1854 — May 1856, served during the Siege of Sebastopol until its fall, Sept. 8th 1855, present at the battle of the Alma, 20th Sept. 1854, Balaclava Oct. 25th 1854, and Inkerman, Nov. 5th 1854. Served in India Nov. 26th 1867 to Nov. 24th 1870, invalided home and died in Netley Hospital, Feb. 28th 1871."
(There is nothing in the musters to indicate that he was ever promoted to Sergeant Major and he was still recorded as a Sergeant at the time of his death.)