British and World Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Pair: Private J. L. Holmes, 54th Battalion, Australian Imperial Force, who was killed in action at Fromelles on the Somme in July 1916: as such his remains may well be among those recently disinterred from a mass grave for further investigation and reburial in Fromelles Pheasant Wood Military Cemetery

British War and Victory Medals (4305 Pte. J. L. Holmes, 54 Bn. A.I.F.), good very fine (2) £200-250

James Leslie Holmes, a wheelwright from Murwillumbah, New South Wales, enlisted in September 1915 and was embarked for Egypt with the 2nd Battalion, Australian Imperial Force in H.M.A.T. Aeneas that December. Having then transferred to the 54th Battalion in February 1916, he was embarked for France, where, on 19 July, he was killed in action at Fromelles on the Somme, his unit’s first major action on the Western Front and one that resulted in 65% casualties. He was 22 years of age.

There the story might well have ended, but for news received from Germany, Holmes’ name appearing on a “Death List” submitted to the Royal Prussian War Office (Medical Section) in Berlin in early August 1916, on which he is confirmed as having been killed at Fromelles on 19 July. Then in 1917 his identity disc was returned by the Germans, official records confirming that it was sent back to Holmes’ next of kin that June.

Meanwhile, however, since Holmes had no known grave - his name was commemorated on V.C. Corner Australian Cemetery Memorial after the War - it is likely his remains were among those of several hundred Australian troops buried in mass graves by the Germans after the battle. This, then, places him in the midst of a well-publicised modern day investigation to try and identify some of these fallen, around 250 bodies having been disinterred for possible identification - that investigation now nears completion and the first of the reburials in Fromelles Wood Military Cemetery took place in January 2010.