Joan Florence Holmes was born on 29 January 1934 in Hackney, the daughter of James Robert Holmes (1904-1944) and Mabel Holmes née Tait (b.1908). Her father was a leather tanner.
She was the youngest of their three children. Her brothers were Robert Holmes (1931-2010) and Robert Ronald Holmes (1933-1934) who died aged just 7 months.
Electoral registers in 1935 show her parents at 7 Harvey Street, Shoreditch and in 1936 & 1937 at 57 Nicholas Street, Shoreditch.
In 1938 her father enlisted as a Gunner in the Heavy Anti Aircraft Regiment, Royal Artillery, service number 1476811.
The 1939 England and Wales Register records her as a schoolgirl living at 44 Harman Street, Shoreditch, with her mother.
It would appear that her father left his wife and had a child, Gloria Caroline Holmes (1941-1944) with a Caroline L. Farmer (1921-1944) in Bath, Somerset.
She died, aged 10 years, on 19 February 1944, together with her father, her father's partner and the daughter of her father and her father's partner, at their home at 116 Shaftesbury Street, Hoxton, as a result of enemy action. They were buried together on 25 February 1944 at Chingford Mount Cemetery, 121 Old Street Road, London, E4 6ST.
All four names are commemorated in the Civilian War Dead Roll of Honour that is kept just outside St George's Chapel at the west end of Westminster Abbey.
Credit for this entry to: Andrew Behan.
