A fine Great War Western Front Flight Commander’s Air Force Cross group awarded to Major later Honorary Lieutenant Colonel W.T.F. Holland, A.F.C., 21st (Empress of India’s) Lancers, seconded Royal Flying Corps and later Royal Air Force. From Worcester, Worcestershire, and later Little Coxwell, Farringdon, Berkshire, he went to Eton College, and was then commissioned into the 21st Lancers in September 1912. With the war, he saw service out on the Western Front from March 1915, but was then posted to attend pilot training, and gained his pilot’s licence at Hendon in July 1915. Back out on the Western Front, he was wounded on 27 October 1915, and sent home, having been possibly wounded on the ground, as no squadron is shown. In February 1917 he became a flight commander, and was one of the original pilot’s to joining the newly formed and first night bomber unit, 100 Squadron, and was back out on the Western Front and attacked an enemy aerodrome on 23 July 1917 in his BE2e when he was hit by anti-aircraft fire. He struggled back home and wrecked the craft on landing wounding himself in the process. He however remained as a flight commander on operations through to the end of the war, and was latterly assigned to 39 Squadron out in France as of 7 November 1918, being awarded the Air Force Cross in the New Years Honours List as gazetted in January 1919.
Group of 4: Air Force Cross, GVR GRI cypher, undated reverse as issued, complete with original ribbon and issue brooch pin, and housed in its John Pinches fitted presentation case; 1914-1915 Star; (LIEUT. W.T.F. HOLLAND. 21-LRS.); British War Medal and Victory Medal; (MAJOR W.T.F. HOLLAND. R.A.F.), last three all individually mounted with wearing brooch pin.
Condition: Nearly Extremely Fine.
Walter Thomas Forrest Holland was born on 1 June 1893 in Worcester, Worcestershire, the son of Walter Holland J.P., and Fanny, nee Wish. Educated at Eton College, he left the school in 1911, and as a Gentleman Cadet, then attended the Royal Military Collage, from where he was then commissioned into the British Army on 4 September 1912 as a 2nd Lieutenant with the 21st (Empress of India’s) Lancers.
Promoted to Lieutenant, owing to the Great War he then saw service out on the Western Front from 10 March 1915, but then underwent pilot training, and having received his Royal Aero Club Certificate No.1408 on 5 July 1915 after qualifying on a Beatty-Wright Biplane through the Beatty School at Hendon, was posted to No.4 Reserve Aeroplane Squadron on 4 July 1915 before being seconded to the military wing of the Royal Flying Corps as a Flying Officer on 5 October 1915, and then saw active service as a pilot out on the Western Front. Whilst his squadron remains unknown, he was wounded in action on 27 October 1915, and evacuated home to recover. It is possible that he was wounded on the ground.
On 24 March 1916 he was assigned to No.1 Reserve Squadron at South Farnborough, and then saw home service, being assigned as a Flying Officer to join the Experimental Station at Orfordness from 5 January 1917. Holland was made a Flight Commander and promoted to temporary Captain on 1 February 1917, and then found himself posted to join No.100 Squadron.
This squadron, formed on 23 February 1917, was the first squadron formed specifically as a night bombing unit and comprised elements of the Home Defence Wing. Its first commanding officer was Major Grahame Christie. The unit was mobilised and crossed from Portsmouth on 21 March 1917 to France and was first based at St Andre-aux-Bois, where it received twelve Royal Aircraft Factory F.E.2Bs aircraft on complement. These aircraft had been withdrawn from other units where they had operated in daylight, so modifications were required to adapt them for 100 Squadron's operational role. On 1 April 1917, the unit moved to Izel-le-Hameau and took a further four aircraft on complement, in the form of B.E.2es. The squadron began operations on the night of 5/6 April 1917, when eleven FE2b aircraft attacked La Brayelle Airfield, Douai, where Manfred von Richthofen’s 'Flying Circus' was based; Richthofen referred to this raid in his book, 'Der Rote Kampfflieger'. One hundred and twenty-eight 20lb (9kg) and four 40lb (18kg) bombs were dropped; four aircraft hangars were reported as having been set on fire and one of the attacking aircraft was lost.
It was for an incident in this period that Holland receives a mention in the book ‘The British at War in the Air 1914-1918’. This concerned an incident on 23 July 1917. ‘Later that evening around 2230 Captain Walter Thomas Forrest Holland from 100 Squadron RFC was attempting to bomb an enemy aerodrome in his BE2e A1872 when he was hit by anti-aircraft fire. He struggled back home and wrecked the craft on landing wounding himself in the process.’ Also killed on that day as a result of anti-aircraft fire was the 30 victory German ace Leutnant Karl Allmenroder from Jasta 11. He had just been made commander of Jasta 11 after Manfred von Richthofen had been posted to lead Jagdgeschwader 1.
Holland who was still a Flight Commander with No.100 Squadron as of March 1918, and was then transferred into the Royal Air Force on its formation on 1 April 1918, and was promoted to temporary Major on 1 July 1918. He was assigned to No.39 Squadron whilst still out in France on 7 November 1918, and was awarded the Air Force Cross in the New Years Honours List as published in the London Gazette for 1 January 1919.
Holland relinquished the temporary rank of Major on transferring as a Captain to the Administrative Branch on 5 March 1919, but then relinquished his commission on ceasing to be employed on 5 June 1919, with his ultimate rank being corrected to Flight Lieutenant in the London Gazette for 30 December 1919. Having then rejoined his old regiment, the 21st Lancers, his promotion to Captain was gazetted on 8 June 1920 with seniority from 29 March 1919, but he was immediately placed on the half-pay list ‘on account of ill health caused by wounds’ as of 20 June 1920. His health somewhat improved however, and he was restored to the establishment as a Captain with the 21st Lancers on 14 June 1921, only to eventually retire on 14 December 1921, receiving a gratuity on doing so, and he then transferred into the Regular Army Reserve of Officers.
Holland, who lived at Little Coxwell, Farringdon, Berkshire, married Ada Maree Howard Martin at Holy Trinity Church in Kensington in 1923. As a reserve officer, he was still in the lists but not employed in any obvious form during the Second World War, he having become a Captain and War Substantive Major (No.42574) with the newly retitled 17/21st Lancers, Royal Armourer Corps. On his attaining the age limit for recall, he ceased with the Reserve of Officers, being removed from the list on 2 September 1945, and granted the honorary rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
