Jac Holmes

Hundreds of mourners gathered in Dorset on Friday 2 February 2018 to attend Holmes' funeral. "About 500 people, including family members, friends, British Kurds, the parents of other British men to have died in Syria and about 30 former YPG comrades from across the world" attended the service in Wimborne to pay tribute to Holmes, according to The Guardian. His coffin was covered with flowers in the colours of the YPG and the YPG commander Nuri Mahmud spoke via Skype from Syria to offer his personal condolences and to commend Jac for his contribution to the eradication of ISIS in Raqqa. Following the service, his coffin was taken to Poole Crematorium.

In a Q&A on Facebook on 4 October 2017, Holmes said his reason for travelling to Syria was "Because I was sick of seeing what was going on in Syria, and western nations not doing enough to help"

Holmes was a former IT worker and decorator from Poole in Dorset. He had no military experience before traveling to Syria in January 2015, shortly after he turned 22. Holmes did three tours of northern Syria with the YPG and featured regularly in international media about foreign fighters with Kurdish-led forces, including the Channel 4 documentary 'Frontline Fighting: The Brits Battling ISIS'. His death came four days after the Syrian Democratic Forces declared the liberation of Raqqa.

Jac Holmes (18 January 1993 - 23 October 2017) was a British volunteer with the Kurdish YPG militia who fought against ISIL in Syria from January 2015 until his death in Raqqa on 23 October 2017 while clearing mines from the city.