Career
A prosperous draper by profession, he was nevertheless very active in campaigning for workers" rights and was instrumental in founding the Leeds Company-operative Society (President 1862-1864) and its precursor, the People"s Flour Mill. His writing on the value of cooperatives attracted attention from major figures such as Edwin Chadwick, who cited his work, and John Stuart Mill, with whom he corresponded. Holmes"s essays argue that the costs and quality of the co-op bread compared favourably with the private sector due to economies of scale and saving marketing costs and it provided a way to avoid adulteration of flour.
On reading a paper sent to him Mill wrote:
Other correspondents included John Ruskin and Holmes" name is also recorded as a correspondent of Marx"s International Workingmen"s Association, the First International.
He wrote on the history of Leeds and was a contributor to "Old Yorkshire". He was also a serious antiquarian and collected antiquities on an expedition to the Near East.
His collection was later acquired by the Leeds City Museum and is now in Abbey House.
