Major George Henry Needler, PhD, was born on 28 March 1866, in Millbrook, Ontario, the son of George Needler and Helen Stewart, and had three sisters and five brothers,

He attended Port Hope High School. He received his BA from University College in 1886 and later his PhD from Leipzig. He eventually became a Professor at the University of Toronto where he was chair of the German department at University College from 1914 to 1936. He also wrote several books over the years and played the violin.

In 1899 he married Mary Winnifred Chisholm and they had a daughter Mary Craig Needler who became an associate professor of Ancient History at University College, a daughter Winnifred Ellen Needler was the curator of the Far Eastern department at the Royal Ontario Museum, and a son Alfred Walker Holinshead Needler MS PHD FRSC.

Needler served as a Corporal with the Queen’s Own Rifles in the North West Field Force in 1885 and rose to the rank of Major during the First World War when he commanded the Overseas Training Company at the University of Toronto.

When he died in Toronto on January 1, 1962, he was the only surviving QOR veteran of the 1885 expedition. He is buried in St John’s Anglican Church, Port Hope, Ontario.