David Tetlow was born in Rossendale, Lancashire during the Second World War. Following his school years, he worked as a mechanical engineer and later specialised in textile machinery research and development. He married Joyce in 1963 and has a son, daughter, four grandchildren and recently two great-grandchildren. He joined the Lancashire police in the late 1960s and completed most of his thirty years-service in the Greater Manchester police from which he retired as an investigating officer.