Gunner Milfred Valentine Holdsworth was born April 25, 1888, in Woodstock, Ontario, to parents Nelson and Rose Holdsworth. Prior to his enlistment Holdsworth worked as a bank clerk with the Canadian Bank of Commerce in Toronto, Ontario. He had served briefly with the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada.

Holdsworth enlisted in Toronto with the 67th (University) Battery, Canadian Field Artillery, on September 5, 1916, proceeding to England aboard the SS Mauretania the following November. In March of 1917 he was sent to France to join the 3rd Canadian Divisional Ammunition Column, with whom he served until the end of the war. Returning to Canada in March of 1919, Holdsworth was demobilized in Toronto on the 30th of that month.

Content notes:
Of the two collection letters, one was written by Holdsworth to his sister on Christmas Eve of 1918. The other is from the Canadian Bank of Commerce’s book Letters from the Front: Being a Record of the Part Played by Officers of the Bank in the Great War, 1914-1919.

External link:
Gnr. Milfred Holdsworth’s service record (Serv/Reg# 338006) can be viewed/downloaded in pdf format through Library and Archives Canada [please note that the L&AC record spells Holdsworth’s first name as “Milford” (January 2024)].