Albert Edward Holdstock was born in Luton in 1896.

In 1911 he is 15 years old & working as a manufacturer's assistant. He is living with his family at No 20 Stanley Street. His father Samuel is 43 & working as a labourer for a timber merchants, his mother Lizzie also 43, is a straw hat machinist & his younger brother Hedley is 13 and at school.