Lance-Corporal Philip Hollott

Taken in October 1942. Spencer Robert Philip Hollott enlisted in the Territorial Army in 1938, completed his parachute training in April 1942 and was posted to the 1st Airborne Divisional Signals, with whom he served in North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Arnhem. He returned safely from Arnhem, and is believed to have been amongst the last to withdraw by swimming across the Rhine, yet his family noted that the experience had greatly altered him. He left Divisional Signals in January 1945, and in August of that year became an officer and was commissioned into the Royal Sussex Regiment, spending the next two years with the British Army of the Rhine. Hollott emigrated to Canada in the 1950's, living in Ontario and later in British Columbia, where he worked in law enforcement until retirement, as a jail guard and governor, and later as a deputy sheriff. He died in December 1983. Copyright: Maxx-Phillippe Hollott.

Philip Hollott in October 1942. Copyright: Maxx-Phillippe Hollott.

"P" Section, 1st Airborne Divisional Signals, in Kairouan, Tunisia, June 1943. The Section was attached to the 21st Independent Parachute Company. Left to right: Corporal Bennett, probably Sergeant Markendale, Philip Hollott, Lieutenant "Jock" Campbell and Signalman Airey.