[11] Holmes was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1986,[12] whereupon he transferred to and took command of the 2nd Battalion, The Wessex Regiment (Volunteers),[13] filling the appointment until 1988.

In the 1988 Queen's Birthday Honours, he was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) (Military Division).

[21] In the 1998 New Year Honours, he was promoted to Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) (Military Division).

[20] In 1989 he was appointed as the co-director of Cranfield University's Security Studies Institute at the Royal Military College of Science, at Shrivenham.

[25] Holmes wrote more than twenty published books, including Firing Line and Redcoat, and was also Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford University Press' Companion to Military History.

In this, he travelled across the world, including South Africa, Sudan, Egypt and various locations in the United Kingdom and Europe.