Komati River
At the start of the Second Boer War, Holland, now 22 years old, enlisted as a sergeant in The Royal Canadian Dragoons. He was one of three men from his regiment who were awarded the VC during a desperate rearguard action on 7 November 1900 at the Battle of Leliefontein near the Komati River. (The others were Lieutenant Hampden Zane Churchill Cockburn and Lieutenant Richard Ernest William Turner.)