2nd Lieutenant Raymond Boycott Holcroft
9th(Service)Battalion
Devonshire Regiment
1st July 1916
Born in Codsall,Staffordshire in 1895. He was baptised on 16/10/1895.
His parents were Arthur Holcroft(13/12/1862-1940) and Ethel Margaret Boycott(08/061868-13/09/1943). They were married in 1894.
Raymond had a brother,Alan Boycott(born on 3/03/1898).
In the 1911 census, it showed that Raymond was a boarder at Warwick School,Myton,Warwickshire.
At the outbreak of war he applied for a commision and became a temporary 2nd Lieutenant on 22/09/1914.
His disembarkation into France was on 03/10/1915.
He was killed in action on 01/07/1916.
Raymond was awarded the 1914-1915 Star, the 1914-1918 British War and Allied Victory medals.
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His brother Alan served with the Royal Flying Corps, Naval Wing(R.N.A.S.) and was commissioned as a Flight Sub Lieutenant on 16/07/1916.
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Staffordshire Advertiser – Saturday 15 July 1916
2nd – Lieut. R.B. Holcroft
2nd-Lieut. Raymond Boycott Holcroft, Devon Regiment, killed on July 1, was the elder son of Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Holcroft of Woodford Bridge Essex. And formerly of The Grange, Whiston, Shropshire. He was 20 years of age and was educated at
The Wergs Preparatory School and Warwick School, where he was a sergeant in the O.T.C. At the outbreak of war, he was farming in Gloucestershire and immediately obtained a commission in the Devon Regiment. He was twice wounded in the early part of this year.