Billy Holmes played for several amateur clubs prior to being signed by Manchester City manager Sam Ormerod in 1896. He would remain at Hyde Road for nine years before a departure in May 1905 to join Ormerod who was now managing the O’s and about to guide them through their first ever season in the Football League.
Financial difficulties would plague that historic campaign and caused the board to sell several of the club’s key players, a decision that led to manager Ormerod’s resignation in March 1906. Holmes was duly appointed as his successor.
Over the years that followed, he gradually built a strong O’s side bringing in such talented players as Fred Parker, Fred Bevan and Richard McFadden, achieving consecutive fourth place finishes in 1910-11 and 1911-12. The club also obtained their first silverware in nearly a decade, winning the Dubonnet Cup in May 1911 and the London Challenge Cup the following season.
Sadly, the First World War would interrupt the momentum Holmes had begun to build at Millfields Road. Aged thirty-nine at the start of the conflict, Holmes had enlisted within the Special Constabulary (a group of volunteer policeman) within two weeks and many of his players followed his lead, enlisting in the 17th Battalion Middlesex Regiment, frequently known as the Footballers’ Battalion. Three players would lose their lives during the War; William Jonas, Richard McFadden and George Scott.
Holmes continued as manager after the Armistice, but his health soon deteriorated and he passed away on 18th February 1922. He was buried five days later at Darley Dale – close to his native Matlock – with several O’s players in attendance. Some helped to carry his coffin as the Orient legend was laid to rest after seventeen years service for the club; Holmes remains the O’s longest serving manager to this day.
