Tetleys in South Africa

Several Tetleys have been to, or have lived in South Africa.

Oliver Robin Tetley (1929-1974)

Although born in the UK, and a descendant of one of the Tetley families that were prominent in the cloth trade in Bradford, Oliver was a political activist in South Africa in the 1960's. One of his daughter's wrote :-

"He was very involved with the ANC. He was banned from South Africa in 1961 and lived in Swaziland after that. Now that the old regime has dissolved, so many people have returned who knew and admired him. He was instrumental in the Sharpville airlift, that got most of the ANC out of South Africa after Nelson Mandela's arrest. People like Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu and Thabo Mbeki have contacted me to say how much he had done for the movement. I gather he was a colourful, and passionate personality."

Oliver was married four times, and has five children. He took his own life in 1974.

George Joseph Tetley (1867-1944), Samuel Albert Tetley (1870-1924), Edward James Tetley (1874-1935) and John Walter Tetley (1877-1938)
were all born in Derby UK, the sons of Edwin Albert Marriott Tetley and AgnesWilson.
They all emigrated to the African continent.

John married in Cape Province in South Africa in 1903. He remarried in Zimbabwe, (then called Rhodesia) in 1920.

The descendants of these four are settled in Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.