Albert Holmes was born at Poplar, East London, on 9 October 1888, the younger son of Charles Benjamin Holmes, a carman, and his wife Susan (née Stokes).

He joined the Royal Navy on 8 May 1906 at Shotley, giving his previous occupation as junior clerk. He trained in HMS BOSCAWEN III and HMS GANGES II and then joined the Boys’ training cruiser HMS SUTLEJ where he was rated Ordinary Seaman in November 1906. From January 1907 for two years he served in the pre-dreadnought battleship HMS  MAGNIFICENT and was rated Able Seaman in January 1909. This was followed by two years in the battleship HMS AFRICA, also in the Home Fleet.  In March 1911 he joined the Sheerness torpedo school, HMS ACTAEON where he qualified as a Torpedoman in August, and then remained on the books of ACTAEON for duty in a tender until February 1913.  From then until April 1916, he served in the battleship HMS SWIFTSURE, flagship of the East Indies station.  This escorted troop convoys from Bombay to Aden at the start of WW1, and then saw service in the Gallipoli campaign.

He joined HMS DOLPHIN in April 1916, moving to HMS THAMES between June and August, and then back to DOLPHIN.  In December 1916 he was drafted to HMS MAIDSTONE, principal depot ship for the submarines of the Ninth Flotilla based at Harwich.  His record shows him serving in HMS E46 from 1 July 1917.  He died on 5 November 1917, noted on his record as an accidental fall down the forward hatch of E46, clearly at Portsmouth at that time.  However, at an inquest reported in the Hampshire Telegraph on 9 November, medical evidence was heard that the fall was due to heart failure, caused by ‘sudden distention of the stomach’. A verdict of death by natural causes was returned. His older brother, Charlie Benjamin Holmes was notified of his death, and Albert Holmes was buried at Haslar Royal Naval Cemetery, Gosport.