John Shadbolt was born in 1893 in the village of Clapham, Bedfordshire. How he got into the profession of golf is as yet unclear however, his entry in the list of members of The Professional Golfers' Association has him as being at Bournemouth Golf Club presumably as an assistant to the then resident professional H L Curtis. What is not in doubt is that he enlisted in Axminster as a Gunner in the Royal Garrison Artillery. At the age of just 24 John Shadbolt would fall in action in the spring of 1917.

The Professional Golfers' Association