Owner of the R. B. Holmes & Co. photography studio in Peshawar, Pakistan. Commercial photographer who took over the business established by his father, William D. Homes, around 1899 in Peshawar, Pakistan. Holmes was an official photographer of the Afghan Wars on the North West Frontier in Afghanistan. He also spent time in Kashmir and in other Asian locales. Later in life he also painted watercolor landscapes from the same areas. In 1929 he published a memoir of his time in Afghanistan, Story of the North West Frontier Province, Peshawar, containing gelatin print plates of his landscapes.