Joesph Wilsdon as born in the picturesque English village of Bourton-On-the-Water in January 1886. The eldest of seven children to Joseph Wilsdon and Ellen Wilsdon, he moved to Western Australia in his mid-20s and chose the Mid West coastal city of Geraldton as his new home.
Harry, who worked during the week as a butcher, represented the Geraldton Town club in the latter stages of the 1914 football season. That summer he played cricket for Moonyoonooka and the following year retuned to the football field with Thistle, who went down to Geraldton Town in the final of the Hansen Cup.
Harry enlisted in the 16th Battalion, serving as a Private, in November 1915. He arrived in Egypt early the following year and transferred to 48th Battalion as part of the reorganisation of the AIF. His battalion were preparing to enter the firing line at Pozieres when William fell ill and was admitted to Calais’ No.30 General Hospital in July 1916. Diagnosed with severe rheumatic fever, Harry was transferred to a military hospital in Grantham, England, where he remained through to September. During that stay in England he learnt his 17-year old brother, Alfred, had been killed at Puchevillers in the Somme Valley while serving in the British Army.
Discharged from military service, Harry returned to Australia in February 1917, heading back to Moonyoonooka where he was employed on a property owned by prominent pastoralist David Edgar Grant.
Joseph Wilsdon was just a few days shy of his 48th birthday when he passed away at Moonyoonooka on 2 January, 1934.