Stanley Hollis

Medals are shown left to right, as per the bullet point list above.

Born on the 21^st September 1912, Stanley Hollis grew up in the towns and villages of the industrial North East.
Despite winning a scholarship, he had to leave school at the age of 14 to help in his parents’ fish shop.
A career in the Merchant Navy was cut short after he fell ill with blackwater fever in East Africa.
Returning home, he struggled to find work in the economic depression of the 1930s but he never claimed any kind of financial support. He was determined to be self-reliant.

Stan Hollis joined the Green Howards in early 1939. In April 1940, Hollis was sent with the 6^th Battalion to France. Promoted to Sergeant after the battalion escaped from Dunkirk, he took part in the North African and Sicily campaigns.

Stan Hollis on Parade

The only Victoria Cross awarded during the D Day landings, 1944. Hollis earned the award for a succession of gallant deeds which prevented British units being held up by enemy action.

Stan Hollis Victoria Cross

On the 6^th June 1944, Company Sergeant Major Stan Hollis, landed with his battalion on Gold Beach.
As Hollis made his way up the beach it became clear that a pill box was hindering the advance inland.
Firing his Sten gun, Hollis charged the pill box. He shoved his gun muzzle through the firing slit and then clambered on top of the pill box to push a grenade through the slit. He then continued to attack. The sight of such a ferocious soldier was too much and about 20 Germans immediately surrendered.
Throughout the day, whenever the fighting was at its heaviest, Hollis displayed the utmost gallantry. In the late afternoon he rescued two Bren gunners who were pinned down by German fire. Hollis charged in and continued firing until his men had withdrawn.
The award of the Victoria Cross to Company Sergeant Major Stan Hollis was announced on the 17^th August 1944. A local newspaper man called round to the Hollis house and photographed Hollis with his wife Alice and their two children Pauline and Brian.
He was presented with the Victoria Cross by HM King George VI on the 10^th October 1944.

Stan Hollis giving a battlefield tour of where he won his Victoria Cross

After the war, Hollis struggled to find work that would support his family until he trained as a publican.
The work often required his physical strength and no nonsense attitude, but he was also a generous and kind-hearted man.
Hollis didn’t enjoy the publicity that came with being awarded the Victoria Cross. His focus was his family and when time allowed, horse and pigeon racing.
Stanley Hollis died in 1972 when he was only 59. His five war wounds probably contributed to his early death.