Cecil Holliday was the Chairman of the Shanghai Municipal Council in 1906.

He was a member of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps and was promoted through its ranks eventually becoming commandant on two occasions.

He was replaced as Chairman by Henry Keswick[4] Holliday campaigned for greater transparency in council meetings proposing resolutions to allow the public access to their records and to allow the press to attend meetings.

[5] He died on 31 July 1924 at St Marie's Hospital in the French Concession in Shanghai and was buried at the Bubbling Well Road Cemetery at a funeral attended by the British Consul-General, Sidney Barton, and the British Crown Advocate for China, Hiram Parkes Wilkinson.

[7] They had one son, John Cecil Hamilton Holliday, who served in the army.