Pictured in the accompanying postcard photograph is Company Quartermaster Sergeant Joshua Tetlow, 1/6th Sherwood Foresters. A check of the 1901 Census of the United Kingdom strongly suggests that he is identical to the Joshua Tetlow, aged 20, who was residing that year in Clifton, Ashbourne Rural District, Derbyshire, with his parents, Henry and Selina, and his four adult sisters. Joshua and 3 of his 4 sisters were born in Mayfield, Staffordshire, just a short distance to the west of Clifton. He, his father, and all the sisters but one were cotton mill workers

Joshua Tetlow's very low regimental number of 226 indicates that he was among the first to join the "new" 6th Sherwood Foresters when it was formed from the Derbyshire Volunteers on 31 March/1 April, 1908. He was to serve in C Company, which was the Ashbourne-Buxton area company. Medal Index Card records show that as a corporal he was awarded the Territorial Force Efficiency Medal (TFEM) pursuant to an Army order of 1 January, 1912. Qualifying for the TFEM entailed having 12 years service, indicating that Tetlow's original enlistment in the Derbyshire Volunteers dated from the period 1899/1900.

When he arrived in France with his battalion in late February 1915, he did so as Company Quartermaster Sergeant of C Company. He was wounded later in the year, probably in May. In May 1916 he was discharged from the army.

Photo and text courtesy of Chris Jordan, with special thanks to Dr. Mike Briggs for background research.

The process by which the above photograph and story found its way onto this site is worth recounting and may prove helpful to anyone who has only a photograph to go on.

Chris Jordan, a Great War enthusiast from West Virginia, USA, found the above photograph, labelled 'Q.M. Segt Tetlow', at an Antiques stall in Maryland. In order to discover more about who this man was, Chris posted a query on the outstanding 'Great War Forum' that runs in conjunction with one of the most useful websites related to the British Army in the Great War known as 'The Long Long Trail'. The enquiry was spotted by myself (hence the final result being hosted here) and received very helpful hints and research from several people, all of whom deserve a word of appreciation: Richard Howells, Ian Grant, Stuart Brown and especially Dr. Mike Briggs.

All Chris initially had was the above photograph, though his knowledge of the Great War allowed him to quickly observe that Joshua's cap badge was that of the Notts & Derby (Sherwood Foresters) Regiment and that he was a Sergeant (the three stripes on the arm). He then checked to see if there was a suitable Medal Index Card (MIC) available for download via the National Archives. By typing 'Tetlow' in the surname field and 'Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment' in the Corps field Chris found two cards for the same man. The MIC gave Tetlow a regimental number, 226, the christian name of Joshua, a rank of Company Quartermaster Sergeant, a date of entry to the war of 28/02/1915 and a date of discharge from the army of 03/05/1916. In addition to this valuable information the MIC also confirmed Joshua's medal entitlement of a 1914-15 Star, Victory Medal and British War Medal. He then used the online 1901 Cenus to see if he could trace Joshua. This produced five matches. The ages of two of them effectively excluded them as having served in the war in 1915 (being aged 49 and 67 respectively in 1901) leaving three possibles. Of these only one had a Derbyshire connection which, given the regimental attachment, made this man, aged 21 in 1901, the most likely candidate. He was born in Mayfield, Staffordshire and lived in Clifton & Compton, Derbyshire as a Picer in a Cotton Mill. Armed with this information Chris contacted the 'Great War Forum'.

Richard and myself used the date of entry information from the MIC to offer a suggestion that Joshua probably arrived in France with the battalions of the 139th (Notts & Derby) Brigade. This brigade, of the 46th (North Midland) Division, arrived en masse in France in late February 1915. If this was the case it would suggest that Joshua was a territorial of either the 1/5th, 1/6th, 1/7th or 1/8th battalions. Having conducted further analysis of Joshua's unusually low regimental number (226) by interrogating the 'Soldiers Died in the Great War' (SDGW) CD-Rom database (information here) I was able to add further weight to the territorial suggestion. SDGW showed that men of a similar number who had died in the war were all members of the 1/6th or 1/7th battalions. Such a low number also suggested strongly that Joshua had been a member of the Sherwood Forester territorials for some time before the outbreak of war in 1914. At the same time I informed Chris that Clifton & Compton and Mayfield, although in seperate counties, were extremely close to each other, being near Ashbourne.

This point was spotted by Stuart Brown who was able to unearth a local newspaper article dated 04/06/1915 and headed "Ashbourne Military Matters". The article included the comment, "Colour Sergt Tetlow of the 6th Sherwood Foresters who was recently reported as wounded during the fighting in France is now, it is understood, under treatment at Aldershot hospital". Thanks to Stuart we now had confirmation that Joshua was a territorial of the 1/6th battalion, 139th (Notts & Derby) Brigade, 46th (North Midland) Division.

This information allowed Mike Briggs, who is researching the 6th battalion in detail, to add that Joshua was with 'C' (Ashbourne & Buxton) Company in 1912 when he had been awarded the Territoral Force Efficiency Medal (TFEM). This also confirmed the suspicion that Joshua had been with the battalion in its pre-war days. Chris examined the photograph above more closely and noticed the ribbon of the TFEM on the uniform.

Mike Briggs now went into research overdrive, offering;

"his Regimental number strongly suggests that he was one of the first recruits to the 'new' 6/Sherwood Foresters when it formed from the Derbyshire Volunteers on 31st March/1st April 1908. Logic would dictate that he was the 226th man to re-enlist, but I'm not sure that the British Army is that consistent? However odds are good that he re-enlisted within the first year."

"The 1913 Regimental Annual and MIC state that he was awarded the TFEM in 1912. The qualification for which was 12 years service, suggesting that he enlisted in the Derbyshire Volunteers around 1899/1900. I can find no evidence that he was with the Volunteer Contingent that served in the Boer War with the Regular Battalion"

"The 1913 Regimental Annual states that he served with C Company, which recruited from Ashbourne and Buxton and this ties in with his address. The wide area over which the Battalion recruited meant that for practicalities sake he probably stayed with C Company at least until they got to France. Indeed the Regimantal History lists J Tetlow as the Coy QM Sergt of C Company on its arrival in France in Feb 1915."

"The infomation that Stuart added is very interesting and would suggest that he was wounded sometime during May 1915 (assuming that it took a week - 10 days for the news to arrive home and be published). From April to June the Battalion served in trenches in front of Kemmel. It was recorded in the Battalion History that in the month of May the 6/Sherwood Foresters suffered 2/Lt Henry Severne and 16 men killed; 2/Lt Gilderoy Glossop and 69 men wounded."

To cap it all, Mike then produced a photograph of C Company at Clumber Park in 1913 which included an individual bearing a striking resemblance to Joshua in the photograph above.

The only question remaining is how did Joshua's photograph turn up in an antiques mall in Maryland, USA?!

The full thread of the above enquiry can be found here on the 'Great War Forum'. You will need to register as a user beforehand. Registration is free.