Mexborough and Swinton Times May 18, 1918

Sub Lieutenant A.S. Holmes

Engineer Sub Lieutenant Arthur Stanley Holmes (R.A.R.) second son of Mrs Holmes of the post office Mexborough has been mentioned in dispatches. (“London Gazette,” April 17), in connection with operations in African waters in 1915 and 1916.

These operations include cooperation with the military force in German south-west Africa, and the final destruction of the German cruiser Köningsberg.

Sub Lieutenant Holmes has held a naval commission almost throughout the war. He was previously in the service of the White Star Company, and the ship and the personnel were taken over by the Admiralty as soon as they completed the voyage upon which they were engaged when war broke out.

He saw a good deal of his earlier naval service in the ill-fated Laurentic (auxiliary cruiser), but when that vessel was torpedoed in the Irish Sea he was in England, invalided.

Before the war Mr Holmes had a short but adventurous career as a marine engineer, first with the Harrison Line, and later with the White Star. He was twice shipwrecked, and on the first occasion, when SS Barmby was lost in the River plate, he spent six days on the wreck, and was rescued on the day the vessel broke up.

During his seafaring career he has voyaged to all parts of the world and he visited many ports between Hong Kong, Montevideo and San Francisco.

It has also been employed at various times that the generation stations of the Denaby and Cadeby collieries, the Also Colliery, and the General Post Office, Mount Pleasant, London.