the omission of actual dates in Superintendent Cox's summary of his movements during the war, many historians feel it is unlikely that Toplis was in France to participate in the mutiny. Early life Toplis was born at Sanforth Street, Chesterfield, Derbyshire and christened on 25 September 1896 at Skegby. His parents, Herbert and Rejoice Elizabeth (née Webster), were unable to support him and he was raised by his grandparents. He was educated at South Normanton Elementary School, where he was reportedly an unruly bully who was frequently caned. In March 1908, aged 11, he was birched for acquiring two suits using false pretences. His grandparents were no longer able to control him and the court released him to his aunt, Annie Webster. Toplis left school in 1910 aged 13, and became a blacksmith's apprentice at the Blackwell colliery, but after a poor attendance record and an argument with the pit manager he took to an itinerant life in Scotland. In 1911 he was sentenced to ten days imprisonment in Dumfries for the non-payment of two train tickets. He returned to England and in 1912 it is alleged that aged 15, Toplis was sentenced to two years hard labour for the attempted rape of 15-year-old farmer's daughter Nellie North at Sutton-on-Sea in Lincolnshire, serving his sentence in Lincoln Prison and released in 1914. However, while Toplis's name is entered in the records of the Quarter Sessions for the assault on Nellie North, the Boston Guardian of 9 March reports that the man charged at Alford Police Station was a man named James Topliss. It was reported that Topliss had followed the girl past Brown's Farm and assaulted her at a railway crossing. After her ordeal the girl was examined at a surgery in Mablethorpe where signs of "force and violence were found." When apprehended, Topliss gave his name as William Edmundston of Sutton and alleged that he had been on his way to Skegness to visit an uncle. The Census of 1911 shows that farm labourer James Topliss was living with his 12-year-old son Walter James Topliss in nearby Withern in Alford at the time of the incident. Blackwell in Mansfield is some 85 miles away. First World War In 1915, the year after the outbreak of the First World War, Toplis joined the Royal Army Medical Corps and served as a stretcher bearer, his first active duty being at Loos.