Ron Holmes

Ron Holmes, courtesy of Rob Hansen

(19?? – ????)

Ronald Holmes (usually going by Ron; sometimes emphasized the shortening with a period "Ron. Holmes") was a fan from Liverpool active in the 1930s and 1940s. He co-published Science Fantasy Review and later Science-Fantasy Review War Digest. He was a member of the Science Fiction Association (SFA), the British Fantasy Society (BFS) and a founder of the British Fantasy Library (BFL) and its first Librarian and editor of Booklist.

The Liverpool branch of the Science Fiction Association was created in June 1938 and Holmes joined 'just after the introductory stage when Eric Frank Russell, Les Johnson, etc., had created the group and it was about to fall apart' (quoted in Then). He attended the Second British Convention in 1938 and the Third British Convention in 1939. With Les Heald he produced five of the thirteen issues of Science Fantasy Review between May 1939 and January 1940, succeeded by the Science-Fantasy Review's War Digest for another nine (there were two in March), or not quite:

War

Then and Beyond Fandom say Holmes was a conscientious objector during the Second World War, "assigned to a Pacifist Service Unit in Liverpool". In the final issue of SFRWD (#9, September 1940) Holmes announced "I joined up for 7 years in the [Royal Army Medical Corps]" as well as "By the time that you get this your goldenhaired boy will be engaged." He turned over materials for the issue to be produced to J. Michael Rosenblum, who noted that the pass-over was faster than planned as "unforseen circumstances have prevented" Holmes to finish the run. (From the next issue, JMR subsumed the newszine in his Futurian War Digest.) But in FWD #2 (November) Holmes reported:

Hello Chums, I'm back again - and you'd better get used to me, for I'm here for a long - long time. My application to the R.A.M.C. has failed. In spite of the encouraging words of the recruiting officer, the central Board has turned me down - without explanation. Next registration will add another C.O. to the list. It may seem a complete turn-about to you - but you don't know the wheels within wheels.

In the same issue, Rosenblum published anonymously the description of brutal persecution of uncompliant objectors by their Colonel and Regimental Police:

from a personal letter written by a personal friend of mine and I will absolutely guarantee its truth in every particular. It’s the treatment given to a C.O. in Liverpool, this September; a Leeds boy 21 years old who is as sincere a Pacifist as anyone I know. […] a more hideous caricature of justice than our local C.O. Tribunal would be difficult to imagine. Ask Ron Holmes who saw it in action for a few minutes, and left hurriedly while he was still in control of his temper.

Even if Holmes was just a witness of such events, it would certainly explain his decision to find – or be forced to take – an acceptable way out. Then FWD #10 (July 1941):

Ron Holmes appeared before his local C.O. tribunal this month. Verdict land work, ambulance or civil defence.

FWD #11 (August 1941):

Ron Holmes has been transferred from Liverpool to London on his Pacifist Service Unit work. As this takes up the whole of his time, he must, perforce, retire from active fandom for the time being.

From the look of it, that lasted no more than a year or so, as from 1943 Holmes is pretty active. He attended the Midvention in April 1943 and the two Norcons over the New Years 1943–4 and 1944–5.

Post-War, BFL

When the British Fantasy Society folded, Holmes and Nigel Lindsay formed the British Fantasy Library and published its official organ, Booklist. The first issue of Ken Slater's Operation Fantast was issued alongside it in September 1947.

However Holmes was hospitalised and in 1948 dropped out of fandom altogether, although not before providing Walt Willis with his introduction to Anglofandom outside Ireland. Willis saw an advertisement for the BFL in a prozine and wrote off for details. Holmes replied, sending BFL material and a copy of Operation Fantast leading Willis to contact Ken Slater.

Holmes was reportedly rediscovered by Ian Maule in the early 1970s and attended the Beyond This Horizon event in Sunderland, 1973.

Fanzines and Apazines:

• Booklist [1947–8] (for the BFL)
• He Said [1941] for FWD
• Review Section [1942–3] for FWD
• Science Fantasy Review [1939-40] (some issues with Leslie V. Heald)
• Science-Fantasy Review's War Digest [1940] (early issues with Leslie V. Heald)

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