Private J Andrews enlisted into the 2nd Battalion of the Sherwood Foresters as a boy in the 1890s. His regimental number was 4381. He was reported in I’m 95 magazine in March 1894 as becoming a drummer with immediate effect. 

Private Andrews served with the 2nd Battalion in the Tirah Expedition (1897-8). The beginning of the trouble in Northwest India began in June 1897 with what was known as the ‘Maizar Outrage’. This was an attack on British Officers who were part of an escort of a political prisoner; three were killed, three wounded and another forty-eight were casualties. The unrest increased after the initial attempt to deter risings in the area.

It would not be until mid-September that the 2nd Battalion would be selected as part of operations in the Northwest and join the Tirah Expeditionary Force.