SERJEANT WILLIAM ECCLES HOLT
KING'S OWN ROYAL LANCASTER REGIMENT
10TH SEPTEMBER 1916 AGE 39
BURIED: DELVILLE WOOD CEMETERY, LONGUEVAL, FRANCE
Serjeant Holt's widow quotes from Psalm 37 verse 7: "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass."
The words form the opening lines of a beautiful aria from Mendelssohn's Elijah:
O rest in the Lord, wait patiently for Him,
And he shall give thee thy heart's desires.
Commit thy way unto Him, and trust in Him,
And fret not thyself because of evil doers.
Holt had already served 12 years with the army before the First world War broke out. In 1897, when he was 18, he had enlisted with the Royal North Lancashire Fusiliers and served with them in South Africa during the Boer War being present at the relief of Kimberley. He retired, time expired, in 1909. On the outbreak of war in 1914, he joined the King's Own Royal Lancaster Regiment, and went with them to France in February 1915. Holt survived the fighting of First Ypres and of both Delville and High Wood but was killed on the morning of 10 September by a shall which exploded among the working party he was bringing out from a night's work in the trenches.
A married man and the father of two daughters, his son was born eight weeks after his death. He was baptized William Eccles Holt.