Toowoomba-born William Holmes was 19 when he enlisted in April 1918. A fitter by trade, he joined the 1st Field Squadron Engineers and saw service in Egypt as a Sapper. He was discharged on return to Sydney in August 1919.
Holmes was listed on the Toowoomba British Association Football Honour Board, but apart from a scratch team called Casuals in 1917, details of his football exploits are unknown. Having spent the war as a teenager, it is likely his football history is obscured as youth and schoolboy football was not reported in detail in the Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette. He was Rangeville State School’s trophy winning Rugby captain in 1913. The school also contested soccer.
After the war he married Margaret Reid in 1923. He passed away sometime after 1980.