Handfield was an English officer who spent his "entire military career in Nova Scotia" and was therefore directly involved in the stirring history of the period, including the deportation of the Acadians in 1755 and the 1758 siege of Louisbourg.

Not much is known of Handfield's early life. Apparently, in 1720, he joined, as an ensign, a very famous British regiment that had its birth in Nova Scotia, " The Fighting Fortieth ." 1Handfield was made Lieutenant in April of 1731; in 1736, appointed to sit on Council; made captain, in 1740; major, in 1754; and Lieut-colonel, in 1758. 2It is to be observed that John Handfield was to spend his entire military career in Nova Scotia. .

At some point, before 1731, Handfield , married one of the Winniett girls, Élizabeth . The DCB , in its write up of Handfield, makes reference to two sons, John and Thomas; and a daughter, Mary.

With the arrival of Cornwallis and the general strengthening of the British presence in Acadia in 1749, Handfield was sent up in the fall of the year from Annapolis Royal with 100 men to establish a stronghold at Minas. There he built "a picketed fort containing a blockhouse"; this, in order to better protect the road connecting the old and new capitals .

Captain John Handfield was then the officer in charge at Annapolis Royal. Imagine! as he went about his duties of loading his wife's close relatives onto the transports.