Kenneth Sidney Hollis (Service No. 4351332) was killed on 25 November 1944. He was aged just 21. He was initially buried at Cemetery A. vd Wijst, Overloon and transferred on 13/5/1947 to Plot I.D.12 at the CWG cemetery at Overloon. He was a Private in the 2nd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment. The inscription on his grave reads: “He gave his all so that we all could live whichever way we pleased.”
 
No photo of Kenneth has yet been found. Should anyone reading this have a photo of him or further information regarding him – or if they are aware of any errors in his biography below can they please contact the Foundation?

Military Career

The 2nd Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment took part in the D-Day landings in June 1944 and lost many men as a consequence. A substantial number of reinforcements joined the Battalion in late July when it had returned across the Orne to Beauville, near Caen in France. It played a part in action to secure a road junction at Vire in mid August but played no further part in the Battle of Normandy. In September they were in Belgium and successfully crossed the Escaut canal as part of the ill-fated Market Garden operation, arriving in Gemert in Holland on 26 September where they received a tremendous welcome.
 
October saw the 2nd Battalion involved in some of the heaviest fighting since the end of June, amid continual rain and mud. The battalion played its part in capturing Overloon on 12 to 15 October, suffering 49 casualties. It went on the following day to attack Venray, finally reaching the town on the 17th. By first light on the 18th, the Germans had withdrawn and the battle was over, at the cost of nine “other ranks” killed, forty-one, including one officer, wounded, and eleven men missing. The Divisional Commander described the troops of 3rd Division during this period of fighting as “desperately gallant soldiers with a wonderful spirit”, having concluded that the conditions under which they had fought were “quite Bloody”. On 19 October the battalion moved to the St Servatius area of the town, relieving the 2nd Warwickshire Regiment. Between then and 25 October they succeeded in evacuating seven hundred patients from a mental institution whose water tanks had been destroyed and moving 2200 refugees, stretcher cases and attendants without casualty despite being only 200 yds away from the enemy’s forward line who had the main road approach to the asylum covered by machine guns. The battalion then proceeded west to the area of Deurne / Griendtsveen to fill gaps in another division during the German threat at Meijel, supporting another division with mortar fire while it put in a counter attack.
 
On 1 November, the battalion moved to relieve the 1st Hereford Regiment at Griendtsveen and remained there for a week, enduring bad weather and enforcing a system of standing patrols by day and roving patrols by night in an area of peat-bogs, marshes and flooded fields. On the 10th, the battalion went into reserve at Overloon and rejoined the 3rdDivision, however an incident on the 19th illustrates that there were no `safe’ areas within shelling distance of the front lines. A shell landed on `A’ Company’s cook-house, causing three casualties, and then a sniper hit two soldiers in the same company, killing one. On 22 November, the battalion moved east of Overloon into Smakt, which proved to be a heavily mined area, and discovered the bridge was rigged with a 500 kilogramme bomb. `D’ Company sent out a patrol to see if the village of Maashees had been evacuated and when it was found to be free of Germans, the rest of the Company followed, with `C’ Company moving up closer to the village and `A’ and `B’ Companies defending Smakt. The 2nd Battalion was fortunate to have reached the Maas without having to take part in further battles. Sadly, however, it was on 24 November, just after this success, that Kenneth Hollis was killed. It was also just before the Battalion went into reserve and had a much quieter time in December and January.

Family Background

Kenneth Sidney Hollis was the son of Sidney and Minnie Hollis of Norwood, Surrey.
 
Sidney was born in Thornton Heath, Croydon, Surrey on 11/6/1888. In censuses from 1891 to 1911 he was living with his parents at 112 Livingstone Road, Thornton Heath. In 1901 he was working as a Butcher’s Assistant, but by 1911 he was a House Painter. His father, Robert Hollis, had been born in Mursley, Buckinghamshire around 1851 and was a general labourer in 1891, a railway engine maker’s labourer in 1901 and a house painter in 1911. Sidney’s mother was Alice Hollis (nee Wagg)  who had been born in Hillington, Norfolk around 1854. They seem to have had children as follows, all born in Croydon: John Henry 1874/5 (later a Postman), Alice M 1879, Louisa F 1881, Frederick N 1885 (working as a Railway steam engine cleaner), Sidney 1888, Laura A 1891, Robert 1893, Blanche 1895 and Mabel 1897.
 
By 1921, Sidney’s father had died and Sidney was head of the household which included his mother, his sisters Mabel and Blanche and a female visitor – Lucy Francis Hollis, who was born in 1898 in High Wycombe, Bucks and working as a Factory Hand at Whitbread & Co Ltd,  Beer Bottlers. Mabel was working as a Factory Hand – a Biscuit Cutter with Peak Freans Ltd. Blanche had married Frederick Broome in 1920 in Lambeth but was living with her birth family at the time without her husband present. Sidney was now a Foreman House Painter working for Mullen & Lumsden Ltd., Builders.
 
In his free time, Sidney seems to have been an entertainer. In four newspaper articles from 1911 to 1920 he was reported as Stage Managing entertainments for celebrations for the local Wednesday Football League, a social gathering for his employer and another in aid of the Titanic Fund in 1912. He appears to have been a conjuror who called himself “Mr Pal Crystal” or the “Crystal Magician”. His niece, Betty, can remember that he was a magician who called himself Crystal and had that name on his shed in his garden. She believes he also performed at nearby Crystal Palace.
 
Kenneth’s mother was Minnie Smart. In 1911 she was living with her birth family at Kintbury Holt, Kintbury, West Woodhay, Berkshire. Her parents were George and Elizabeth Ann Smart (nee Westall). George was born in 1871 in Kintbury and was a Carter on a farm while Elizabeth Ann was born in 1873 and born at Stockcross in Berkshire. They had been married for 17 years and had seven children, all still alive. At that time, the eldest, Annie Louise who was born in 1895, was not at home, but the other six were. Gertrude Maud was born in 1897, George in 1898/9, Minnie on 7/5/1900, Charles in 1901/2, Alfred in 1906/7 and John in 1910/1. The eldest and two youngest were born in Kintbury, but George, Minnie and Charles were born in Marsh Benham in Berkshire. By 1921 Minnie Smart was working as a servant at the Royal Normal College for the Blind, Church Road & Weston Street, Upper Norwood, Croydon.
 
Sidney Hollis married Minnie Smart in 1922 in Croydon. Kenneth was born on 11 February the following year, also in Croydon.
 
In September 1939 Sidney, Minnie and Kenneth were living at 92 Hermitage Road, Croydon. Sidney was working as a Foreman Painter & Storekeeper. By this time Kenneth, now aged 16, was employed as a Sheet Metal Worker on Aircraft. He was their only child. Their niece, Betty, can remember visiting the family when she was a child and meeting Kenneth. She believes that Sidney later worked as a furniture restorer and knows that he used his skills to make her a tea caddy as a wedding present. She isn’t certain that Kenneth was in the East Yorkshire Regiment for the whole of his time in the forces. It is possible that, like other men, he may have been switched to that regiment to compensate for losses they had incurred earlier in the war.
 
Sadly, Kenneth died In the Netherlands on 24 November 1944. His cousin knows that his mother Minnie was devastated by his death as he was her only child. She can also remember celebrating VJ day in 1945 as a child where they met up with one of Kenneth’s friends.
 
On 6 December 1946 it was reported in the Norwood News that Mr & Mrs Hollis had allowed models of aeroplanes, galleons and a jeep which Kenneth had made while a member of the Boys Brigade to be exhibited at a fair to raise money for equipment for the youth club at St Andrew’s Mission. It was mentioned that Kenneth had lost his life in Holland in 1944.
 
Minnie probably died in Croydon in 1959 and Sidney in 1971.

From FindMyPast website: Civil and Parish Birth, Marriage and Death Records; England Census and 1939 Register Records; Electoral Rolls; Military Records
Military records from ForcesWarRecords website
Information on the East Yorkshire Regiment from a thesis written by Tracy Craggs for her PhD with the Department of History, University of Sheffield 2007 “An `Unspectacular’ War? Reconstructing the history of the 2nd Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment during the Second World War”. 
D-Day to Bremen and Beyond; Untold stories from the men of the 2nd Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment, by Dr. Tracy Craggs
https://ddaytobremen.co.uk
British Newspaper archive: Croydon Times/Croydon Express / Norwood News
Information from Betty, daughter of Minnie Hollis’ brother, Alfred Smart

Research Elaine Gathercole