Cartledge was born in Burton Joyce, Nottinghamshire.
He took part in a Derbyshire vs. All England Eleven fixture in the 1878 season Nine of the players in the All England Eleven were past, present, or future Test cricketers, and Derbyshire lost by seven wickets.
Cartledge played as a lower-middle order batsman and was dismissed by Alfred Shaw for 1 and Dick Barlow for 0.
Cartledge died in Stoke Bardolph, Nottinghamshire at the age of 52.
This biographical article related to an English cricket person born in the 1850s is a stub.