Edward James Gibson Holland was born in Ottawa on February 2, 1878, and went to South Africa as a 22-year-old sergeant in the Royal Canadian Dragoons during the Boer War. On November 7, 1900, at the Battle of Leliefontein on the Komati River, his regiment fought a desperate rearguard action to save two 12-pounder guns from a much larger Boer force.

Holland worked a Colt machine gun mounted between the guns until it overheated and jammed. With the Boers closing in and the carriage horse exhausted, he tore the hot gun free, caught a riderless horse, and galloped out with the weapon under his arm rather than leave it to the enemy. His officers Hampden Cockburn and Richard Turner also won the Victoria Cross that day — three VCs in a single Canadian action. Holland died in Toronto on June 18, 1948.