Wolstenholme was born in Maitland, New South Wales, the son of Edmund Kay Wolstenholme, a timber merchant from West Maitland, and Maybanke Susannah Anderson (1845-1927), feminist and educationist.

[1] When his parents moved to Marrickville, New South Wales, he became a pupil at Newington College (1881–1885).

[4] Wolstenholme married Edith Lucy Doust (1875-1947) on 8 January 1902 in the Methodist Church, Stanmore.

[5] Lucy was the sister of Stanley Doust and was an early female graduate at the University of Sydney[6] and tennis player.

[8] A portrait of Wolstenholme feeding a thrush in the garden of his home at Wahroonga, New South Wales is held by the National Library of Australia.