Hardwicke Holderness

Harold Hardwicke Clake Holderness (6 January 1915 – 21 March 2007)[1] was a lawyer and liberal politician in Southern Rhodesia, who was also a highly decorated wartime RAF Coastal Command pilot.

Background

Hardwicke Holderness was born in Salisbury (now Harare), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe).[1] He was educated at Rhodes University College (now Rhodes University) and won a Rhodes Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he joined the Oxford University Air Squadron and trained as a pilot. [2]

Second World War

At the outbreak of war[3] he joined the RAF and served as a pilot firstly in RAF Training Command and then later in RAF Coastal Command, serving in No. 502 Squadron RAF. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO),[4] Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom)[5] and Air Force Cross (United Kingdom),[6] and finished the war with the rank of a wing commander [3] [7] [6] .[5][4] [2] [8]

His DSO citation read:

Wing Cdr. Holderness has commanded his squadron for a considerable period. He has taken part in many of the sorties completed by the squadron. These have been mainly anti-shipping patrols over the Bay of Biscay and the Atlantic. In October, 1944, Wing Cdr. Holderness attacked an enemy vessel in the Skagerrak, and in November, 1944, he bombed a beached U boat. He has completed many other attacks on enemy ships, some of them in the face of intense opposition. As a pilot and as squadron commander this officer has always displayed outstanding determination, leadership and courage.[9]

After the war he returned to Southern Rhodesia and became a leading lawyer, and in 1948 married Elspeth Macdiarmid with whom he had two daughters.[1][10]

Politics

He was a strong advocate for full racial equality, founding in 1953 the Interracial Association of Southern Rhodesia.

In the 1954 general election he was elected as an MP for Garfield Todd's ruling United Rhodesia Party, and was considered to be the most liberal member of the party. [8] [11] He served as an MP until Garfield Todd was forced out of government in 1958.[8]

Later life

In 1975 he left Rhodesia and settled at first in Oxford, before moving to Cheltenham, where in the 1980s he wrote his memoir about postwar Rhodesia Lost Chance: Southern Rhodesia 1945–1958 (1985).[8][12]

References
  1. "Hardwicke Holderness". The Herald. Glasgow. 3 April 2007. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  2. Emma Atkinson (2020). "Catalogue of the Archive of Hardwicke Holderness". Bodleian Libraries. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  3. "No. 34700". The London Gazette. 3 October 1939. p. 6660.
  4. "No. 37197". The London Gazette. 24 July 1945. p. 3878.
  5. "No. 36598". The London Gazette. 4 July 1944. p. 3188.
  6. "No. 36309". The London Gazette. 31 December 1943. p. 44.
  7. "No. 35358". The London Gazette. 25 November 1941. p. 6781.
  8. Tony Jaffey (28 June 2007). "Hardwicke Holderness". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  9. "Holderness, Harold Hardwicke Clarke". TracesOfWar.com. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  10. "FORTHCOMING MARRIAGES". The Scotsman. 5 January 1948. Retrieved 6 December 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  11. Latimer, Hugh (29 January 1954). "Government victory in Southern Rhodesia". The Yorkshire Post. Retrieved 6 December 2021 – via British Newspaper Archive.
  12. "Elspeth Holderness". The Herald. Glasgow. 10 December 2009. Retrieved 6 December 2021.
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