Col Percy HOLLAND [1744]

  General Notes:

Births.
On the 20th inst, at Petworth Rectory, the wife of the Rev Charles Holland, of a son.
Morning Advertiser 24 February 1862.

Surname: Holland
Given Name: Percy
Birth Date: 20 Feb 62
FIRST COMM: 22 Oct 81
DATE RANK: 1 June 04
RANK: Colonels & Lieutenant-Colonels
COMPANY: British Officers of the Indian Army
REMARKS: Resdg. ex India.
Page #: 86
Indian Quarterly List 1 January 1912.

India Office List.
Order of the Star of India. KCSI
Col Percy Holland.
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer 3 June 1913.

Officer Removed from the Army.
Colonel Who Commanded a Brigade in France.
The London Gazette of last night contained the following announcement:
Col P Holland, CB, retired pay, Indian Army, is removed from the Army, the King having no further use for his services as an officer. May 3, 1918.
Col Percy Holland who is 56 years of age, commanded a brigade in France in 1916. Educated at Charterhouse and in Germany, he entered the Army in 1881, and became captain (ISC), in 1892, lieutenant-colonel in 1904, brevet-colonel in 1904. He served in the Egyptian Expedition of 1882, gaining the medal with clasp and the bronze star. He was mentioned in dispatches and awarded the medal and 2 clasps for his work in the Burma campaign, 1885/7; obtained a medal and 2 clasps for his services on the North West Frontier of India in 1890 and 1897/8, and a further medal for his services in China in 1900. From 1903 to 1910 he commanded the 47th Sikhs, and retired in 1913, when he was awarded the CB.
The son of Prebendary Holland, Rector of Petworth, he resides in Kent.
Birmingham Mail 3 May 1918.

Deprived of His C.B.
The following announcement, dated May 24, appeared in last nights "London Gazette": "The King, as Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, has been pleased to command and declare that Percy Holland, a Companion of the said order and lately a Col in the Indian Army, retired pay, shall from this day be removed from the said Order, he being unworthy any longer to remain a member thereof."
Col Percy Holland entered the army in 1881, and saw service in India, Burma, the North West Frontier of India, and China. He retired in 1913. In 1916 he commanded a Brigade in France.
Lancashire Evening Post 29 May 1918.

Colonel "Unworthy".
Veteran Officer Deprived of His C.B.
The following announcement, dated May 24th, appeared in last nights London Gazette: "The King, as Sovereign of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, has been pleased to command and declare that Percy Holland, a Companion of the said Order, and lately a Col In the Indian Army, retired pay, shall from this day be removed from the said Order, he being unworthy any longer to remain a member thereof."
Col Holland had a distinguished military career. Born in 1862, educated at Charterhouse and in Germany, he entered the army in 1881, and served in the Egyptian expedition of the following year. He was in the Burma campaign of 1885/87, the North West Frontier troubles of 1890 and 1897, and China 1900. He was captain 1892, major in the Indian Army 1901, lieutenant-colonel 1904 and brevet colonel 1907. He commanded the 47th Sikhs, 1903/10, and retired in 1913, in which year he received the CB. In the present war he commanded a brigade in France in 1916. In July last year he was appointeded to the staff, graded as staff captain.
Nottingham Evening Post 29 May 1918.

Peter Duckers (of DCM Medals http://www.dcmmedals.co.uk/) writes 2014.
He volunteered for war service in 1914 and became a brigadier commanding (very briefly) a full brigade on the Western Front in 1916 until relieved on the age regulation, and returned home for service in UK.
However, in 1918 he was dismissed from the army and stripped of his CB under circumstances which have not been established. He later lived in Westerham and died on 18th Sept. 1931 at The Moat House, Collier St., nr. Marden, Kent.
Every effort has been made to get to the root of the issue, in all sorts of archives and involving all sorts of people who might know with no success! The official War Office papers relating to whatever he did no longer exist - or are "closed" - and the Royal Archives simply record the fact of what happened to him (i.e. dismissed and stripped of CB - "he no longer being considered worthy" etc.) and not the reasons.
His Indian Army papers do not refer - it was after his "retirement" from IA in 1913 anyway - and while the fact of dismissal etc. was widely reported in UK and Indian papers, they (tactfully??) do not give any reason.
He and his family went to Canada shortly afterwards (though they obviously did not stay there) - I wonder if it was to get out of the way while things died down?

David Hope writes in 2016, suggesting that Percy's humiliation involves the conflict with Hovell:
Below is copy of the Courts Decision on Col. Hovell, which is in your notes as well as ours, this is how we came to our possible reason for Percy's loss of decoration.
When First World War broke out in 1914 Hovell was on the retired list, but he soon found himself in command of the 13th (Reserve) Battalion Worcestershire Regiment, formed at Plymouth in November 1914. He also quickly found himself in trouble. His behaviour became the source of rumour among the rank and file, two of whom complained about him. The Times' account of the libel case, on 6th May 1920, reported that:
"Early in December, 1914, rumours were rife that private soldiers were making indecent suggestions about the conduct of the plaintiff, and these rumours continued. A court of inquiry was ordered, and of the two private soldiers who gave evidence one tried to commit suicide."
The President of the Court was Colonel Percy Holland. The conclusion of his report was as follows:
"The Court having most carefully considered the evidence brought before them are of opinion that although they do not consider there is any ground for specific charges such as suggested by the allegations made by Privates Fletcher and Baugh regarding Colonel Hovell, at the same time they are of opinion that Colonel Hovell is undoubtedly eccentric in his manner and methods in dealing with his men, and that these peculiarities of his in conjunction with the treatment rendered necessary to his back are liable to misconstruction."
As a result of the report, Hovell was removed from his command and returned to the retired list. He sought to retrieve his reputation and in 1915, at the age of 52, he enlisting secretly under an assumed name as a private soldier in his old battalion (2nd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment). He served with his 'old comrades' in France for five months until his health broke down.
In May 1920 Hovell's claim that Colonel Percy Holland had libelled him in the report of the inquiry came to trial. Holland's counsel, the Attorney-General, successfully argued that a Court of Inquiry was privileged and that Hovell had suffered no real harm, being stripped neither of his rank, nor his DSO, nor his pension. The judge found for the defendant with costs.
Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh De Berdt Hovell, D.S.O., died from broncho-pneumonia on the 27th November 1923, aged 60.

"A Privileged Document"
Alleged Libel in Court of Enquiry Report
In the King's Bench Division today, Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh de Berdt Howell, DSO, formerly of the Worcester Regiment, sued Col Percy Holland for libel contained in the report of a Court of Enquiry, in which the latter was the President. Defendant pleaded privilege.
The Attorney General submitted that the report of a Court of Enquiry was an absolute privileged document. Sir Edward Marshall Hall, for the plaintiff, said the effect of the alleged libel was the complete ruin of Col Howell's military career. He had 27 years Honourable service.
The Atty Gen stated there was no aspiration upon the honour of plaintiff.
Sir Edward Marshall Hall thereupon said the case would be withdrawn, and judgement was given for defendant with costs.
Nottingham Evening Post 5 May 1920 (it is not certain that this report involves Percy Holland[1744])

Peter Duckers (of DCM Medals http://www.dcmmedals.co.uk/) writes in 2017.
Looking at the site recently I noticed that someone (David Hope above) had made the comment that Holland's fall from grace in 1918 (stripped of CB and dismissed the army ) was related to the Hovell libel trial in 1920.
I researched this myself in detail and I can categorically state that Holland's fall was not related to that trial - this took place (May 1920) - two years after Holland had been degraded and in any case, Holland was acquitted of any wrongdoing.
The reason for PHs fall from grace remains unknown!!!

However in 2019 Andrew Rose writes clarifying the unfortunate matter:
In late December 1917, Percy Holland wrote a letter "of the most compromising nature" on "the notepaper of a famous club" to one Sydney Fox (posing as "The Honourable S H Fox", an RFC cadet), who was then aged 18 and who had been issuing forged cheques. The letter, recovered by military police from the RAC club in Pall Mall, led to "the dismissal and disgrace of the unfortunate officer who had written it."
In 1930, Fox was convicted of murdering his mother at the Hotel Metropole, Margate in December 1929. Put briefly, Fox was a conman, thief, forger and male prostitute, whose penchant was "associating with men of a higher social standard...addicted to Sodomitical practices." Some socially prominent names were in the frame...
Fox had been employed as a page (or "pocket cherub") at the London home of Sir John Leslie, but was dismissed after stealing silver. On his own account (News of the World 23 March 1930), Fox claimed to have met PH when posted to the Army Ordnance Corps at Woolwich, after a conviction for forging cheques. Fox writes of being introduced by the Colonel to prominent figures in society and in 'theatrical life'.
The National Archives MEPO 3/862
This file contains Inspector Goodwillies's police report of 1919, which states inter alia that "Brigadier-General Holland was removed...in connection with his conduct with Fox and another cadet...", circumstances referred to in CID correspondence 89455/2, which was no longer attached to the file when seen by me in the 1990s. Other senior officers (unnamed) were allegedly involved in the scandal.
I make reference to PH and SF at pp167-168 of Lethal Witness (Sutton Publishing 2007; Kent State University Press 2009), my biography of Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the Home Office pathologist whose (decidedly wobbly) evidence about a disappearing bruise led to Fox's conviction and subsequent execution at Maidstone Gaol.
I, too, failed to find any record of PH's court-martial, even approaching the India Office library with that aim in mind.
It appears that the author F Tennyson Jesse spoke to Captain Glynes Bruty, APM of Eastern Command, who arrested Fox at the RAC in late December 1917. She sets out his record of the arrrest, with reference to an unnamed 'elderly officer', in her introduction to The Trial of Sidney [sic] Fox in the Notable British Trials series, published by William Hodge & Co in 1934.
A thumbnail sketch of an extraordinary episode.
Andrew Rose. http://www.andrewroseauthor.co.uk

Fashionable and Personal.
The death occurred at the Moat House, Collier Street, on Friday, of Col Percy Holland, late of the 47th Sikhs (The Duke of Connaught's Own), the youngest son of the late Rev Prebendary Charles Holland.
Sevenoaks Chronicle and Kentish Advertiser 25 September 1931.

Collier Street.
The late Col Holland.
The funeral took place at Lynchmere Church, near Haslemere, Surrey, on Wednesday of Col Percy Holland, of Moat House, Collier Street, who died last Friday. Col Holland was the youngest son of the late Rev Prebendary Charles Holland and formerly held a commission in the 47th Sikhs (The Duke of Connaught's Own)
Kent and Sussex Courier 25 September 1931

Holland Percy of The Moat House Collier Street Marden Kent died 18 September 1931. Probate London 10 November 1931 to Rose Holland widow. Effects L4747 5s 3d.
National Probate Calendar.

  Research Notes:

Image courtesy Peter Duckers - 2016

  Other Records

1. Census: England, 2 Apr 1871, The Rectory Petworth SSX. Percy is recorded as a son aged 9 a scholar born Petworth SSX

2. Census: England, 3 Apr 1881, Sandhurst Military College BRK. Percy is recorded as a Gentleman Cadet aged 19 born Petworth SSX

3. Col Percy Holland: 47th Sikh Regiment, 1903 To 1910.
Senior Ranks of the 47th Sikh Regiment.
Percy Holland 4th from right, center row.
Image courtesy Peter Duckers (of DCM Medals http://www.dcmmedals.co.uk/) 2016

4. Col Percy Holland: 47th Sikh Regiment, 1903 To 1910.
Senior Ranks of the 47th Sikh Regiment.
Percy Holland 3rd from left, center row.
Image courtesy Peter Duckers (of DCM Medals http://www.dcmmedals.co.uk/) 2016

5. Census: England, 2 Apr 1911, Frimley SRY. Percy is recorded as head of a 13 room house aged 49 married retired Col in the Indian army born Petworth SSX

6. Comedy Play: "John Brace and Co", 27 Dec 1911, at Chelmsford ESS. Illustrating Percy's interest and success in amateur dramatics.
Image courtesy research of Peter Duckers (of DCM Medals http://www.dcmmedals.co.uk/) 2017

Percy married Rose TREVOR [1752] [MRIN: 574], daughter of Edward Shirley TREVOR [24491] and Georgina Gisborne ARTHUR [24492], on 9 Sep 1893 in St Pauls Glenageary Dublin IRL. (Rose TREVOR [1752] was born circa 1863 in Dublin Ireland and died on 21 Sep 1936 in Wimbledon SRY.)