Introduction
William Frederick Charles Holley began life in difficult circumstances in Hampshire, but later established a more stable adult life in Somerset. After starting as a farm labourer and working in the building trade, he found long-term employment on the railway, where he maintained the line at Hardington Marsh and later at Bradford Abbas. His story is not one of dramatic advancement but rather a progression from instability toward steady work and family life.
Early life
William was born on 31 August 1886 at Hordle in Hampshire. His birth was registered under the name “William Holley”, and he was baptised as “Frederick Charles Holley” on 20 March 1887. In later life, he used all three Christian names together.
He was the son of Frances Holley, an unmarried domestic servant whose early life was unsettled. After her mother died when she was ten, and her father four years later, she lived with her maternal grandparents, but by March 1886, they too had passed away. In addition to William, Frances had an illegitimate daughter, Henrietta, born in 1890, possibly by a different father. The 1891 census recorded Frances and her two children boarding in Agar Lane, where she worked as a domestic servant.
In 1896, Frances married William King, a farm labourer of Milton, giving William and Henrietta a stepfather. The marriage was short. Frances died in 1904, aged forty-four, shortly after giving birth to a daughter, Lily Florence. The baby survived and was adopted by Frances’s brother and his wife. By this time, William was eighteen and had already spent four years working as a farm labourer.
Yeovil, marriage and a young family
After his mother’s death, William moved to Yeovil, where he found work as a bricklayer’s labourer. In 1911, he was boarding at 14 Queen’s Street, probably with the same bricklayer for whom he worked. This shift from farm labouring into the building trade indicates a move into more regular urban employment.
In 1913, William married Daisy May Philips, who had been raised by her widowed mother since she was one. In 1911, she lived with her mother and siblings at 6 Park Way, Kingston, and worked as a domestic servant. William and Daisy began their married life in Yeovil, where two children were born: Frederick William Jellicoe in 1914, who died at the age of two, and Peggy Violet in 1918. The choice of the name “Jellicoe” reflects the prominence of Admiral Jellicoe during the early years of the First World War, and the common practice of adopting patriotic names at that time.
Railway career
Around this time, William obtained a position with the London & South Western Railway Company. Soon after the end of World War I, the family moved to Hill End, Hardington, where they lived in one of the Bridge Close Farm Cottages.[1] The position of the cottage suggests that William had been attached to the maintenance gang at Hardington Marsh. While living in the village, they had two more children: Leonard William in 1920 and Joyce Hetty in 1922. The 1921 census also recorded Daisy Lily Ellen Boyall, a thirteen-year-old girl from Lyndhurst, staying with the family. Since Daisy attended Hardington School, it is reasonable to conclude that William and Daisy had taken her into their household after her mother’s death in 1914, though the exact relationship remains unclear. Peggy, Leonard and Joyce also attended the village school, indicating that the family remained in Hardington until at least 1927.[2]
By September 1939, the family had moved to 4 Railway Cottages, Bradford Abbas. William was then working as a “lengthman” on that section of railway line, a term that suggests continuity rather than promotion, indicating that he remained a manual worker responsible for a defined section of line.
William died in late 1968 or early 1969 at the age of eighty-two. Daisy survived him by seventeen years and died in 1986 at the age of ninety-one.
Conclusion
William’s life shows a progression from early instability into steady employment. After beginning as a farm labourer, he moved into the building trade and then into railway work, where he spent the rest of his working life.
References
[1] Hardington rate book for 31 December 1923.
[2] Hardington School admissions register.