Trafford

Attended Springfield Rd School.  Originally employed by the Cheshire Lines
Railway Co., he had only just joined the MN in May 1942 and was lost on his
1st voyage to sea.

The Gloucester Castle was built in 1911, it's gross register tonnage was
8,006, it was 452 feet long, 56 feet wide and could make 12 knots.   A
passenger cargo ship, it was one of 33 ships operated by the Union-Castle
Mail Steamship Co, 3 Fenchurch St, London EC3. It could accommodate 300
passengers.

About 600 miles North-east opf St. Helena, travelling from Birkenhead, U.K.
to Cape Town, East London and Simonstown, South Africa, she was attacked by
the German commerce raider Michel near to the Ascencion Island, in position
08.00 S 01.00 E, and sunk on the 15/07/42.  All her starboard life boats
were destroyed in the attack.    There were 61 survivors, but 91
crew/passengers were lost.  The survivors, escaped in two port side
lifeboats and were picked up by the Michel and taken to Yokohama, Japan
where they were interned for the rest of the war, their whereabouts only
discovered at the end of the war, by which time two of them had died.

His brother Able Seaman John Holden was in the RN and had completed several
trips with his friend Ordinary Seaman Alfred Bradshaw of 46 Ashfield Rd,
Sale.