Name
Hubert Joseph (Basil) Holyoake
Conflict
Second World War
Date of Death / Age
01/08/1943
29
Rank, Service Number & Service Details
Driver
T/14288454
Royal Army Service Corps
Awards: Service Medals/Honour Awards
Cemetery/Memorial: Name/Reference/Country
SYRACUSE WAR CEMETERY, SICILY
IV. F. 4.
Italy
Headstone Inscription
HE GAVE HIS YOUNG LIFE THAT OTHERS MIGHT LIVE. MOTHER, DAD AND SISTERS
UK & Other Memorials
Hitchin Town Memorial, Hitchin Roll of Honour 1939 – 1945 (Book) St Mary’s Church, Hitchin
Biography
He was born in Lancashire but at the time of his enlistment he was residing in Hertfordshire. He was allocated Service Number T/14288454 and sent overseas after only three months training. In North Africa he was attached to a Field Ambulance unit as a despatch rider. He hit a mine that blew up and he sustained extensive burns.
He is buried in Plot 4, Row F, Grave 4 in Syracuse War Cemetery in Sicily. This is strange as the local newspaper report said that he had died in Malta.
His parents were George Henry and Eleanor Mary Holyoake of Ickleford Rd, Hitchin and he was their only son.
Acknowledgments
David C Baines – ‘Hitchin’s Century of Sacrifice’, Mrs I Shepherd, Herts Pictorial dated 24th Aug 1943
