Born in Pincher Creek, Alberta, Halton attended teachers college in Calgary and taught school for several years before attending the University of Alberta, where he gained experience reporting and editing for The Gateway.

Halton was briefly reassigned to the Star's Washington, DC bureau in 1940, but was soon sent back to cover the North African campaign.

After the end of World War II, he remained in Europe as the network's senior foreign correspondent, covering the Nuremberg Trials, the funeral of King George VI, the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and the 1954 Geneva Conference, among other stories.

His daughter Kathleen married influential British theatre critic Kenneth Tynan, and later established her own career as a writer.

The fonds consists of 2.25 metres of textual records, 174 photographs, 15 audio cassettes, and 2 maps.