J.C.D. Tetley

Jack worked for Wreyford Brown and Co, Solicitors, with fellow Corinthian, Charles Wreford Brown. In 1912, he married Sybil Mary Elizabeth Powell Edwards with whom he had three sons, the middle son, Major Gerald Robert Frank Tetley died in service in the Sudan in 1940.

On return from the abandoned tour, he joined the 28th (County of London) Battalion, The London Regiment (Artists' Rifles) as a private. He was promoted to Lieutenant in 1915 and then commissioned into the Grenadier Guards in October 1916 and joined 3rd Bn. in France on 14 February 1917. He was promoted to Captain and into the Special Reserve and was killed on October 9, 1917 during the crossing of the River Broembeek, in the Battle of Passchendaele.

His commanding officer wrote to his widow: "I hate to intrude, but in case the knowledge of our affection for that magnificent husband of yours may be a help, I want to tell you how much we admired and loved him. He was just as splendid a soldier as he was glorious as a man and as such he was a great tower of strength to the Battalion. He was killed instantaneously by a shell just as he led his company into the final objective. I am sure he must have realized that his Company was successful before he died”.

The Chaplain also wrote: “I buried him on the Battlefield as I knew he would like it best, and on his grave I planted some young fir trees which came from a neighbouring garden that he had passed through. We brought his body back from where it fell and laid him to his rest and those evergreens will ever remind me of one of God’s saints on earth. Thank you so much for letting us have him with us during this time, the world has always been enriched by men of his character. And in paradise God has further work for him to do and he will guard you and keep in touch with you and the children he loved so much.”

Jack is remembered at Tyne Cot Memorial, Zonnebeke, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium.