Hull Pals Memorial Post. PRIVATE WILLIAM HOLDSTOCK, 11/1234. Born in 1886, William was the youngest of five children to Thomas and Ann Holdstock. A Slate Enameler’s Labourer by trade, he married Jane Davis in December 1907 and the couple had three children Annie (1909), William Jnr (1911) and Harold (1914). Unfortunately, William Jnr died in 1912 in what was a dark echo of days to come. The family lived at 5 Villa Terrace, Swann Street, Hull. When war came, William enlisted at City Hall on 12th December 1914 joining the 11th Battalion East Yorkshire Regiment, ‘The Tradesmen’, 2nd Hull Pals. A veteran of Egypt and the Somme, he was wounded in the face and eye during the attack on Oppy Wood and withdrawn to 19th Casualty Clearing Station where he later died of wounds. William was buried in a plot 4 miles west north west of Arras in a place that later became known as Duisans British Cemetery; he was 31 years old. He left a widow and two children at this address. His death was reported in the Hull Dail Mail, on 27/05/1917.
The attack on Oppy Wood, part of the Battle of Arras, was a significant battle for the East Yorkshire Regiment and particularly for the city of Hull. All four Hull Pals battalions were involved on 3 May and all suffered heavy casualties, with 40% of those present killed or injured. 2nd Lieutenant Jack Harrison, a local teacher and rugby player with Hull FC, won a posthumous Victoria Cross for his bravery in rushing a machine gun position to protect his platoon. His body was never found.The village of Oppy in France had been in German hands since October 1914 and was part of a formidable defensive system including trenches, dug-outs and thick barbed wire defences. During the Battle of Arras, which began in April 1917, the British tried to take Oppy. The first attack was a failure. A second attack was partially successful. The third attack on 3 May, known officially as the Third Battle of the Scarpe, was again unsuccessful with significant loss of life. The troops were ordered to attack at 3.45am, rather than at dawn, and the defending Germans could easily see the line of British soldiers clearly lit by the full moon. The British continued to attack Oppy and were finally successful the following year. The City of Hull Memorial at Oppy was unveiled in 1927 and commemorates the men of the Hull Pals who were killed on 3 and 4 May 1917.
