Background
He was born in Yorkshire to draper John William Holdsworth and Emma, née Hollingworth.
He was born in Yorkshire to draper John William Holdsworth and Emma, née Hollingworth.
He arrived in Australia in 1893 and worked as a glassblower in Victoria before moving to Sydney in 1900, where he worked for the Australian Drug Company. He was the licensee of the Royal Pacific Hotel in Pyrmont and the Cowper Wharf Hotel in Woolloomooloo from 1920 to 1924, and of the Tilbury Hotel in Union Street from 1924. He served on Sydney City Council from 1918 to 1927.
In 1925 he was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly as a Labor member for Sydney.
Holdsworth died in 1937 in Sydney.