Early Life
His mother died when he was 12 and his twin brother was killed falling from a horse when he was 13. His father subsequently married their governess giving him three half-siblings. He was educated in Grahamstown (Saint Andrew's and Saint Aidan's, King Williamstown (Dale College) and Queens .
At 16 he fought in Matebeleland. He joined the Cape Mounted Police and was at the Relief of Mafeking, South Africa. He joined the Somaliland Burgher Corps fighting the "Mad Mullah" in Somaliland. In 1906 he took part in the Zulu Rebellion
He married Nellie and prior to the outbreak of the First World War, he was housemaster at Langley School and a member of the Territorial Army.
Read more about this topic: John Sherwood-Kelly
Famous quotes related to early life:
“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)