Information supplied through Research Project led by Nigel Crompton.

Name: Alice Maud Mary Holland
DoB: 15 July 1879
Place of birth: Sparkbrook, Warwickshire
Parents: William Charles & Alice (nee Trengove)
Parental Home: 16 Henry Street, Kings Norton
Siblings: Kate Mary (1880-), Walter Victor (1882-1946), Minnie (1884-1951), Joseph (1886-1963), May (1888-), William (1890-1940), James (1893-1961). According to the 1911 Census, William & Alice had 9 children, one yet to be found
Spouse: Never married
Date of Wedding: Not applicable
Children : Not applicable
Marital home(s) : Not applicable
Employment: Domestic cook (1901 census)
1911 Census: Not found on 1911 census
Date of death: 3rd February 1925
Location: Davills Hill, Lacey Green, Bucks. Buried in St John the Evangelist, Lacey Green – no headstone found

Gretna details
Name: Alice Maud Mary Holland
Clock No
Date joining: July 1917
Date leaving: February 1919
Addresses: Not known
Rank on start: PC
Promotion: Not known
Career after: Walsall Borough Police
1921 Census : 63 Holtshill Lane, Walsall

Addresses after Gretna
1921 – 63 Holtshill Lane, Walsall
1925 – Davills Hill, Lacey Green, Bucks

Additional information

Interestingly no confirmed birth registration has been found for Alice, but her police service record gives a DoB as 15 July 1879. Census returns indicate she was born in Sparbrook, Birmingham to William & Alice. The 1911 census show she had eight siblings but of these only 7 have been formally identified. The family moved to Streatham, South London, where William, her father, continued working as a bricklayer by the 1891 census. In 1901, Alice was employed as a domestic cook by a family living at ‘Bank Side’ Leigham Court Road, Streatham. She has yet to be formally identified on the 1911 census, but know she moved to Gretna in July 1917 with the WPS. We do not have a confirmed address for her at Gretna, but know she signed the petition sent to Winston Churchill from the WPS members at Gretna requesting a pay rise and changes to conditions of service. She left Gretna in February 1919 and joined the Borough of Walsall Police in April. She was promoted to Sergeant but on January 19, 1925 went on sick leave suffering from a breakdown. Alice went to stay with her mother in Darvills Hill a small hamlet near the village of Lacey Green, north of High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire. Tragically she died on the 3rd February 1925, aged 45, and was buried in the small graveyard attached to the local parish church, St John the Evangelist. Her mother is also buried in the same graveyard, but it appears without either having a visible headstone.

Sources Consulted

Source
Item consulted
Ancestry UK/ Find my Past
English/ Welsh Census 1881, 1891, 1901,
1911, 1921
Census, electoral registers
Births, Marriages, Deaths, Burial/ Cemetery records
Immigration and travel
British Newspaper Archive
Local, National & Scottish Newspapers
National Archives Kew
Ministry of Munitions & Women Police Service
National Archives Edinburgh
Gretna Police Area records
Devils Porridge Museum Archives
Valuation Roll for Gretna
Electoral Register 1918-1919
Dumfries Archives
Police & Court records
Scotlandspeople
Births, Marriages, Deaths
Valuation Roll for Gretna
West Midlands Police Heritage Centre
Members of Walsall Borough Police
St John’s, Lacy Green, Bucks
Burial records
Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies
Electoral & burial records