Lou Holmes (footballer)

Louis Gordon Holmes (7 July 1892 – 23 June 1915) was an Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League. He was killed in Gallipoli in World War I.

Lou Holmes
Personal information
Full name Louis Gordon Holmes
Date of birth (1892-07-07)7 July 1892
Place of birth Launceston, Tasmania
Date of death 23 June 1915(1915-06-23) (aged 22)
Place of death Gallipoli, Ottoman Turkey
Original team(s) Launceston
Playing career1
Years Club Games (Goals)
1910 St Kilda 1 (0)
1 Playing statistics correct to the end of 1910.
Sources: AFL Tables, AustralianFootball.com

Family edit

The son of Louis Saengar Holmes (1859-1926),[1][2][3] and Lucy Mary Holmes (-1935), née Newton,[4][5] Louis Gordon Holmes was born in Launceston, Tasmania on 7 July 1892.[6]

Football edit

                        The Late Capt. L.G. Holmes.
    Captain L. Gordon Holmes, only son of Dr. Holmes, of Norwood,
has died from wounds he received in the Dardanelles.
    Captain Holmes, who was well known as an athlete, left Adelaide
as a Lieutenant of the 10th Battalion, and was promoted to captain
in Egypt, where he was A.D.C. to Brigadier Maclagan, on the head-
quarters staff of the 3rd Brigade, with Major Brand.
    Captain Holmes was born in Tasmania and educated at Wesley
College, Melbourne, where he gained his blue for football and rowing.
    He attended the University [of Adelaide], where he had a success-
ful scholastic career, and on the athletic side he was in the University
rowing and football teams.
    He also rowed in the South Australian crew.
    Captain Holmes before the war was studying for a military career.
    He was widely popular.
                The Adelaide Chronicle, 17 July 1915).[7]

Following his VFL career, Holmes moved to South Australia and studied at the University of Adelaide, where he received a double blue for Rowing and Australian rules football.[8]

Death edit

He died on 23 June 1915,[9][10] on the hospital ship H.M.H.S. Gascon,[11] of the abdominal shrapnel wounds that he had sustained in action on 16 June 1915.[12][13]

He was buried at sea on 24 June 1915, three miles from Gaba Tepe.[14]

Commemorated edit

He is commemorated at the Lone Pine Cemetery near Gallipoli, Turkey.[15]

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Medical Board, The (Adelaide) Daily Herald, (Friday, 15 December 1911), p.4.
  2. ^ Deaths: Holmes, The Burra Record, (Wednesday, 21 July 1926), p.2.
  3. ^ Louis Saengar Holmes, Launceston Family Album.
  4. ^ Marriage: Holmes—Newton, The Launceston Examiner, (Monday, 30 July 1888), p.1.
  5. ^ Deaths: Holmes, The (Launceston) Examiner, (Thursday, 28 March 1935), p.1.
  6. ^ Births: Holmes, The Launceston Examiner, (Saturday, 16 July 1892), p.1.
  7. ^ The Adelaide Chronicle, (Saturday, 17 July 1915), p.44.
  8. ^ Grant, Allan. "The Fallen Heroes of the St Kilda Football Club". Footy Almanac. Footy Almanac. Retrieved 6 May 2020.
  9. ^ The Fifty-First Casualty List, The (Adelaide) Advertise, (Tuesday, 13 July 1915), p.9.
  10. ^ Died on Active Service: Holmes, The (Adelaide) Chronicle, (Saturday, 10 July 1915), p.31.
  11. ^ Photograph: Hospital Ship Gascon at anchor, collection of the Australian War Memorial.
  12. ^ Forty-Sixth Casualty List, The (Adelaide) Advertise, (Thursday, 1 July 1915), p.9.
  13. ^ Personal Particulars, The (Launceston) Examiner, (Friday, 9 July 1915), p.5.
  14. ^ Photograph (1915): "Bodies of the dead on stretchers covered by Union Jack flags being transferred from the decks of the hospital ship Gascon to trawler for burial at sea.", collection of the Australian War Memorial.
  15. ^ Captain Louis Gordon Holmes, Commonwealth War Graves Commission.

Sources edit

External links edit