Robert Tinson Holman was born on 13 March 1833 in Saint John, New Brunswick to James Holman and Sarah Chadbourne. Following several clerical positions in mercantile businesses in Saint John, Boston and Charlottetown he moved to St. Eleanor’s in 1852 to clerk for his brother James L. Holman in the firm John Andrew and Company. A year later he purchased his brother’s partnership in the firm but the business failed and dissolved in 1856. Holman then started in business for himself in a small store later coccupied by Messrs David Rogers and Son. The enterprise gradually became very successful and by 1870 included retailing, wholesaling, produce shipping and some shipbuilding. It culminated in 1894 with the opening of the large brick R.T. Holman, Ltd. department store and warehouse on Water Street in Summerside. Holman was also involved in other commercial enterprises such as meat and poultry canning, stock raising, and a lobster factopry at Sea Cow Head. By the turn of the century, most of the business being conducted in Summerside was by those who had served as clerks under R.T. Holman.

Robert T. Holman married Ellen MacEwen, daughter of William MacEwen of Summerside on 27 July 1864. The couple had five sons and five daughters. He died on 11 December 1906. The business, R.T. Holman Ltd., passed into the hands of his sons Harry T. and James Leroy who further ventured into the mail-order businss and published a catalog well into the 1930s. A branch store was opened in Charlottetown in 1923 and a few years later, the Summerside store commenced operating Summerside’s first AM broadcasting station, CHGS from its third floor.