W D Holgate was a driving force in the improvement of Clifton Hill in the 1880s, agitating for a railway service, a post office and a police station, building the Albert Hall, and establishing the Clifton Hill Literary Association before being elected to Collingwood council.  He did not neglect his own financial welfare, making the most of the boom years for buying and selling property both as an agent and in his own right. He appears to have been a dynamic livewire with a wide range of interests, capable of switching from one career path to another without slowing pace.

Originally from York in England, Holgate obtained a commission in the Prince of Wales Own Hussars, where he served as an officer until the age of 21 when his father, a gentleman farmer, lost most of his money. William had to give up his commission and decided to set sail for New Zealand, which he reached in December, 1878. He worked on a station, then assisted a naturalist and taxidermist.

In 1881 he sailed for Melbourne where he started in business in Swanston Street as an auctioneer and estate agent. His business rapidly expanded and the following year he opened a branch in Clifton Hill, where he also acquired land. In 1882 he married Caroline Graham at her home in a Congregational service.

Queens Parade, despite being the route to Heidelberg, was still very undeveloped in the early 1880s but was to experience major changes in the remainder of the decade. Holgate applied himself diligently to the improvement of Clifton Hill. He was the secretary of both the North Suburban Railway League and the Clifton Hill Railway League, and by good luck or good management was the agent chosen by the Railway Commissioners to auction for removal the buildings acquired to make way for the railway line from Heidelberg Road to Johnston Street in the 1880s. He was a leading campaigner for a local police station, which was opened in early 1883. He was one of a small deputation whose request for a local Post Office was favourably received, and this opened on the corner of Gold Street in late 1883. In 1886 he was appointed a Justice of the Peace; in 1887 he was voted on to council with a large majority, and elected mayor the following year. In political outlook he was a Liberal Protectionist.

In 1885 he had begun the construction of the Albert Hall in Queens Parade, in association with builder William Hall. This was a brick building, two storeys at the front with a large single storey hall at the rear. At the front were two shops downstairs with a short hallway between them giving access to the hall, and a smaller meeting room above the shops. The hall was approved for opening by the Board of Health in March 1886 and Holgate advertised it as having ‘Good Stage, Scenery, and Piano. Suitable for Balls, Concerts, and Dramatic Entertainments. Also large Room with Piano. Suitable for Lodges, Dancing Classes, and Private Parties.’ Holgate soon moved the business of his Clifton Hill Land Office into one of the shops and also established the Clifton Hill Amateur Dramatic and Literary Club, of which he was the President. From late 1886 the Albert Hall was used as a meeting place for the newly formed Albert Victor Lodge, a Freemason group, but there is no indication that Holgate himself was a Freemason, although William Hall was an official.

By the late 1880s Holgate was living in McKean Street North Fitzroy in a large brick house with an extensive garden and stables, called Askham House after his parental house in York. The publication Our local men of the times commented:

A man of convivial and pleasant ways ... has done much to encourage and promote social life in Clifton Hill. He erected Albert Hall for that purpose and takes a prominent part in local theatricals having a good stage presence and considerable histrionic ability.

Despite his prominence in the local community, Holgate by the 1890s was ready to move on. Possibly his last tie with Clifton Hill was the Albert Hall, which he sold in 1901 to Queens Parade medical man Dr Downie. The hall itself still stands (enlarged and altered in the 1920s and 1950s) and continued through much of the twentieth century as the venue for a great variety of events and entertainments. It also remained a meeting place for the Albert Victor Lodge, which bought the hall in 1919, and enlarged it in 1927 (a plaque on the front of the building refers to this). In 1983 the Lodge sold the hall to the Samian Social Club.Holgate had not forgotten the first colony he had visited. He became involved in the coal industry, returned to live permanently in New Zealand and played a leading part in the development of that country’s coal industry. He also resumed his military interests, being a Lieutenant-Colonel by 1908 and a Colonel at the time of his death at the age of 84.