John William Holyland was born in Leicester in February 1874, the sixth child of Joseph and Augusta Holyland. Four of his older siblings had already died, and he was the first surviving son. Whilst mostly referred to as John William on documentation, he also went by the sole name William; I'll refer to him as JW throughout this post. JW’s childhood was not easy. The family was large, and poor; his father drank to excess and domestic violence was involved. (JWs parents are the subjects of earlier posts, "A Regular Brute" and "A Fairly Strong Woman"). His father was variously penalised for failing to have the children vaccinated, and failing to send them to school. After JW's birth, ten more children were born into the family; three of those died as babies. JW's final family position was as the second oldest of nine surviving children. Given what we now know of the deleterious effects of adverse life events on childrens' subsequent develop
