HOLLOWAY, Frederick

Frederick Holloway was the son of John and Susannah Holloway of "Oakdene", Church Street, Brierley Hill, and the husband of Ethel Blanche Holloway. He was educated at Hill Street Church of England Schools, and gained a scholarship to Stourbridge Grammar School, where he studied for three years. He then passed on to the Pupil Teachers’ centre at Brierley Hill and studied for two years, passing the King’s Scholarship examination with distinction in no less than five subjects. Leaving Brierley Hill in 1908, he entered Westminster Training College at the early age of 18, where his athletic abilities were as much evidence as his scholastic abilities. He took up an appointment as assistant master in a Birmingham school and raced in the colours of a Sparkhill Harrier and enjoyed success as the star sprinter at many Midland meetings. He enlisted in London to join the Territorials of the 5th Battalion of the London Rifle Brigade. They went to the Western Front in 1916 and were very active for the Battle of the Somme, starting on the first day at Gommecourt and fighting at Flers-Coucelette and Gueudecourt in October. They followed up the retreat of the German forces to the Hindenburg Line and fought in the April Battles of Arras. They stayed in the front line and in what was a minor action Lance Corporal Frederick Holloway was killed in action on the 17th June. He was 27 years of age and is commemorated on the Arras Memorial and on the Brierley Hill, Brierley Hill church, Brockmoor church and King Edward VI College, Stourbridge, Memorials.