Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

COPYRITGHT: Extract from unpublished book “Cadet to Commissioner” Brian Holloway CBE, QPM (1929-2013)

"I was too young to join the services and I really believe it was this fact that motivated me to follow the tradition set by my Dad and join the Police Force. I had seen my brothers and their mates in their uniforms and I had gone to the Adelaide Railway Station, with my parents and my Uncle George and Aunty Mabel to say goodbye to Peter and Bob when both of them left for destinations unknown. I was so proud of them both and wanted to be just like them and this was my chance, the closest thing I could do at my age was to become a Police Cadet. It did not occur to me that this was my final goodbye to my brother Bob and I would not see him again.

I had no real understanding War or of what my father, Percy Holloway, who had his 21st birthday in the trenches at Gallipoli, his brother John and my Uncle George Delicate had suffered in World War 1. It was difficult enough for Mum and Aunty Mabel to say goodbye to my brothers and their eyes filled with tears and they hugged them and held them close to their heart. It must have been very difficult for Dad and Uncle George to be standing steadfastly on the railway platform waving goodbye to two good looking young men, smart in their uniforms, who were eager to serve their country but without a real clue of what horrors waited for them.

Uncle George Delicate, my mother’s brother, enlisted on 30 April 1912 into the Hampshire Regiment and fought in the Great War in France. He was discharged on 28 June 1915, no longer physically fit for war service. The right side of his face had been blown away by a gunshot. He had been a handsome son and brother and now he was deeply scarred both physically and emotionally. His ‘Character Certificate’ read “he was industrious, honest, clean, a good hardworking man, intelligent and obliging”. Despite his dreadful injuries he returned to his sweetheart also named Mabel and they married. With that scarred and disfigured face she loved him unconditionally until the day she died, she loved him as much as his mother Mary Delicate loved him - they could not see the injury, they could only see the man and they were forever grateful that he had returned to them from a hell they did not understand."