Hollywood, Arthur Carson (Arthur)
Lieutenant
9th Battalion, Princess Victoria’s (Royal Irish Fusiliers)
Killed in action on Saturday 1 July 1916 (aged 24)
No known grave
Commemorated:
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
Thiepval Memorial, France (Pier and Face 15 A)
Bangor and District War Memorial
Royal British Legion (Bangor Branch) Memorial Plaque
Comrades of the Great War (Bangor Branch) Album in North Down Museum
First Bangor Presbyterian Church
Helen’s Bay Presbyterian Church
Bangor Grammar School
Royal Belfast Academical Institution (RBAI)
Friend’s School Lisburn
Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) War Memorial
Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) Book of Remembrance
Family grave headstone in Bangor Cemetery
Brother of Second Lieutenant James Hollywood
BIOGRAPHY
Arthur Carson Hollywood was born on 29 December 1891 at 139 Albertbridge Road, Belfast and he was a son of James and Elizabeth (Eliza, sometimes Lizzie) Hollywood (nee Carson) who were married on 17 April 1889 in St Patrick’s Church of Ireland, Church Ballymacarrett, Belfast. James Hollywood from 137 Albertbridge Road, Belfast was a son of David Hollywood, a manager. Eliza Carson from 63 Castlereagh Street, Belfast (born in Co Tyrone) was a daughter of Arthur Carson, a land-steward.
The Hollywood family moved from Belfast to Bayswater, Princetown Road, Bangor and later to Red Gorton, Helen’s Bay.
James Hollywood was a property broker and insurance agent and he and Elizabeth had four children:
David (born 5 October 1890 at 139 Albertbridge Road, Belfast; died 1 June 1953)
Arthur Carson (born 29 December 1891 at 139 Albertbridge Road, Belfast)
James (born 16 April 1893 at 139 Albertbridge Road, Belfast)
Gerald (born 30 March 1896 at 8 Castlereagh Avenue, Belfast)
Their father, James Hollywood, died on 20 June 1919 and their mother, Elizabeth Hollywood, died on 18 May 1942.
Arthur Carson Hollywood was educated at Bangor Grammar School, Friend’s School Lisburn and the Royal Belfast Academical Institution (RBAI). In September 1909, he joined the Royal University of Ireland [this University was dissolved on 31 October 1909 when the National University of Ireland and the Queen’s University Belfast took over its functions].
Arthur Carson Hollywood served as the company commander of ‘F’ Company of the Willowfield Battalion of the Ulster Volunteer Force. He worked as a clerk in his father’s business on the Albertbridge Road and on 12 September 1914 he joined the 108th Field Ambulance as a Staff Sergeant. Arthur Carson Hollywood was commissioned into Princess Victoria’s (Royal Irish Fusiliers) on 19 April 1915. He joined the 9th Battalion in 108th Brigade of the 36th (Ulster) Division in January 1916 and was posted to ‘A’ Company. In February 1916, he was wounded in the left arm by a bomb while on patrol near Hamel and on 29 February 1916 he was promoted Lieutenant.
Lieutenant Arthur Hollywood was 24 when he was killed in action on 1 July 1916 during the Ulster Division attack on the west bank of the River Ancre. Sergeant Whitsell stated, ‘The first wave of men left the British trenches followed by the second wave to which Lt Hollywood belonged. I followed them with the 3rd wave of men. I saw Lt Hollywood jump into the German trench. I was then wounded and saw no more. Before this attack, Lt Hollywood showed me the rips in his steel helmet where he had been hit but seemed to be all right then.’
Private Stewart and Private Coppleton both stated that they saw Arthur Hollywood being killed at Hamel, just after leaving the 1st line German trench at about 1300 hours. Private Cobain wrote that he saw Arthur being ‘hit by a machine gun bullet during the advance’. It was reported that Private Nelson who was wounded in the attack lay beside Lieutenant Hollywood’s body all night. Sergeant Slater reported that he saw the body being brought in and that it was buried in the Hamel village graveyard but the grave location ‘is not known’.
Brothers Arthur and James Hollywood died on the same day and the telegram announcing Arthur’s death arrived with his parents one day after that announcing the death of his brother James.
Lieutenant Arthur Carson Hollywood is commemorated on the Thiepval Memorial in France; on Bangor and District War Memorial; in the Comrades of the Great War (Bangor Branch) Album in North Down Museum (Page 16); on the family grave headstone in Bangor Cemetery, Newtownards Road, Bangor and on the Memorials in the RBL Bangor Branch, First Bangor Presbyterian Church, Helen’s Bay Presbyterian Church, Bangor Grammar School, RBAI and Friend’s School Lisburn. Lieutenant Arthur Hollywood is also commemorated on the QUB War Memorial and in the QUB Book of Remembrance (Page 28).
Arthur Carson Hollywood’s nephew, David Francis Apperson Hollywood, (younger son of David Hollywood) was 20 when he died in service during the Second World War, on 15 September 1943.