Sheldon Lawr was born March 31, 1922 in Brampton, Ontario, and he grew up in nearby Georgetown. He is the second of three brothers. Due to the economic difficulties of the Great Depression, Sheldon never completed high school; instead he worked on farms (including a memorable journey to the Prairies via boxcar) and at an airplane assembly plant in Malton, Ontario. Despite being trained in heavy and light infantry, Sheldon spent most of the war working as a transport driver, carrying supplies behind the Allies as they advanced from Normandy to Germany. Sheldon’s journey allowed him to see the devastation that war had caused to the continent, particularly in liberated Holland. After the war, Sheldon returned to Georgetown, Ontario where he met and married his wife, and began his family.