BORN
Crewe in the county of Cheshire in England
DEATH
Jim Holland survived the war and lived a long life and died in his nineties
REGIMENT
7th Machine Gun Company
James Holland
THE CLASSIC DIGGER
His cocksure demeanor and jaunty slouch hat implied a fellow who liked a good laugh and a bit of fun especially after what he had probably just experienced in the mud and blood of the Western Front trenches.
Early in the discovery of the Thuiller collection, this was one photograph that stood out begging to be identified by a family member.
It shows a handsome digger who has just stepped off the battlefield in the middle of a freezing French winter, the mud still on his boots, sheepskin vest strapped tightly against his broad chest.
He was the quintessential larrikin Aussie soldier and it became a mission to find out who he was. Had he survived the war? What was his story? Enter the wonders of Facebook and the internet, which eventually helped to solve the mystery of this man.
In Perth a proud granddaughter, Judy Carroll, noticed the image on the Facebook Lost Diggers website and her first thought was, ‘Why have I never seen this pic of granddad before?’ She sent in a copy of her family’s treasured picture of her grandfather Jim Holland, who was a dead ringer for the bloke in the Thuillier picture.
As it happened, the family also had another postcard image of Jim that he had sent home describing his friendship with a French photographer, the writing on the back saying
“If ever you are in need of a good cry gaze on this and you are sure to weep. This is the final effort of our friend the French photographer. Things are still going strong.
All my love Jim”.
The postcard was dated 9 August 1918.
Halfway there, but a simple visual match was not quite enough. A check with the Australian War Memorial and the National Archives in Canberra confirmed Jim’s 7th Machine Gun Company had indeed arrived in Vignacourt on a wintery day on 1 December 1916.
It was highly likely the picture was of Jim but the best confirmation of all came from his two surviving children, ninety-year-old twins Kath Malta and Reg Holland (who is Judy Carroll’s father). Kath’s instant reaction when she unwrapped a framed copy of the Thuillier picture was spine-tingling, ‘Ooooooh it’s a photograph of Father!’ Her tears of joy and Reg’s smile were all the proof needed to confirm this was indeed an image of Jim Holland and one the family had never seen before. “I’m very very proud of my father”, Kath said.
Veteran Australian actress, Val Lehman, is Kath’s eldest daughter. Val is well known for her role as Bea Smith in the television series Prisoner, but while her achievements are considerable she and the rest of her family are fiercely proud of Jim.
“My grandfather was a forward machine gunner. Their life expectancy was about 30 seconds”, she explained.
Because you’re right up the front and they’re shelling like mad because there you are mowing down enemy soldiers and you are the target. He was actually buried alive twice, by shellfire. And they dug him out and he survived and went back again.
