John Stedeford shared his father's name. He was born in
the pleasant town of Kingston-upon-Thames where his father had a little general shop
which would have sold anything and everything that local people needed.
His mother, who had previously been Susan Deacon, was born in nearby
Wimbledon and by the early 1900s, the family consisted of two boys and
three girls.
As soon as he left school, young John joined the Army, He would still
have seen his family regularly because his regiment, the East Surreys, had their barracks in
Kingston and it must have seemed a good career move for a young man in
the days when John joined up - no thoughts of a World War at that time.
He did well, moving steadily up the ranks, becoming a sergeant by the
time he was in his early twenties.
