A Forester born in Romsay, Hants. He seems to have had an alias of Theobold which was the surname of his siblings George, Henry, Walter, Jessie and Ada

He is listed as attestting in Greenock in September 1914 with the Royal Scots but being discharged as medically unfit with poor vision

He is noted in the Greenock Telegraph November 1915 as signing up for Kitcheners Army assigned #46614, 18th Bn. The Lancashire Regt.