[1] She was the first of eleven children born to Katherine Mary (née Rowe) and John Barkell Holman, who married five months before her birth.

[6] They later moved to the larger town of Cue, following a brief return to Broken Hill where her mother gave birth to her oldest sister Katherine.

Despite her father's political success, Holman and her family did not move to the state capital of Perth until 1905, settling on Beaufort Street.

[9] She "organized choirs and performed in concerts, plays, balls and fêtes", heading a musical group called The Entertainers.

[1] Holman began working as a typist at the Perth Trades Hall in 1911 and in 1914 joined the staff of the Westralian Worker, the ALP's official newspaper.

The car, driven by her sister Iris Demasson, skidded in loose gravel while travelling at speed and collided with the bank of a drain, causing it to overturn.

[17] In September 1919, Holman petitioned for divorce "by reason of desertion for five years and upwards", swearing in an affidavit that the couple had never lived together and that he had never contributed to her financially.