St Andrew’s Church - Commonwealth War Graves

Those who visit the graveyard will have noticed the plaque on the gate and the words ‘at this location there is a commonwealth war grave’. This is because Pilot Officer Dennis ‘Dutchy’ Holland is buried in our graveyard. He died on 25th September 1940 during the Battle of Britain. The Holland family resided in Chaddleworth for many years and several of them are buried close to Dennis.

Dennis was piloting a Spitfire and became involved in a ‘dogfight’ with several German aircraft. He was on the tail of one of them when another rained bullets at him from underneath. Dennis bailed out and landed safely but it was found that he was badly wounded. A doctor came quickly to his aid and he was removed to hospital where he died shortly after admission. His last words to the doctor were “I am alright old pal, Dutchy can take it'.

Dennis Holland was christened ‘Dutch’ by his pals in the Royal Air force. He was 23 years of age, well built, full of vigour, always in high spirits and very popular with his fellow air crew. At the age of 15 he took up civilian flying and gained his A-certificate, at 17 he got his B-certificate and an Instructors Licence at 18. In each instance he was the youngest pilot in England to get these also he later became an Air Guard Instructor again being the youngest in Great Britain to achieve that.

He instructed others in flying all over the UK and had just completed five years in the reserve when war broke out. He had flown about 3,000 hours and immediately volunteered to man fighter aircraft.

So he became a Spitfire pilot and in his many ‘sorties’ he shot down seven enemy aircraft – as officially certified – and secured several ‘possibles’.

Since the ‘Blitzkrieg’ on London he had been engaged in real dogfights almost daily.

A while ago his undercarriage and tail were shot away and the engine put out of action but Dennis Holland successfully landed the machine.

Then, finding that two of his pals had been killed, he at once got another Spitfire and went up and brought down two Germans.

It was found on that occasion that a bullet had grazed his head and buried itself in the dashboard of the plane. He kept that bullet as a souvenir.

Dennis Holland was as daring as he was plucky. On many Sunday afternoons before the war he gave wonderful exhibitions of aerobatics over his parent’s house. There was nothing he could not do with a plane and flying was in his blood. He gave his life for his country and Members of the RAF were present when he was buried at Chaddleworth and they acted as pallbearers.

We are all lucky to have such a man in our graveyard.

During recent graveyard maintenance thanks to a band of Chaddleworth volunteers, it was discovered that we have another Commonwealth Grave – although technically there is no body interred. Three broken pieces were discovered by Spike Hedges under the huge beech tree, these belonging to the Chisman family. Upon reading the script it was found that Corporal Harry Chisman had died in action at Gallipoli in 1915. He was 36 years old and was a Member of the Berkshire Imperial Yeomanry, so he almost certainly would have known Major Philip Musgrave Neeld Wroughton of Woolley Park who was also killed in Turkey and was in the same regiment.

Grahame Murphy