On this day in 1918 Sergeant John Ray Holland died at Camp Rathbun Hospital in Deseronto of pneumonia caused by influenza. Holland was a carpenter who had joined the Royal Flying Corps in England on July 6th, 1916. In March 1917 he was transferred to the new training camps in Canada where he was promoted corporal in August 1917 and sergeant in April 1918 when the Royal Flying Corps became the Royal Air Force. In some records his name is given as Roy, rather than Ray. He had previously served for four years in the 3rd West Riding Brigade of the Royal Field Artillery.

Holland was born in Bakewell, Derbyshire in 1890. In the 1911 census he was listed as an apprentice joiner, living in Sheffield, West Yorkshire. He married Phyllis Rhodes in Sheffield on September 23rd, 1914 and the couple had two children, born in February 1915 and April 1916. Holland’s parents were Richard and Annie Holland. They were living at 56 Cherry Street in Sheffield when he died.

John Ray Holland was buried in Deseronto Cemetery.

John Ray Holland gravestone