Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Frederick (Fred) Coulter was born in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England, on 6 April 1872, the son of Hugh Coulter and Mary Laing. The family was recorded in the 1871 and 1881 Censuses as living in Chesterfield Derbyshire at the Red Lion Inn where his father was the licenced victualler.

His parents separated around 1882 and his father emigrated to Australia aboard the Chimborazo, arriving in Melbourne in August 1882 with his five children aged 8-16. Fred worked in a painting business with his brothers before moving to South Australia where he married Edith Eliza Moon on 8 Jul 1895 in St. Andrew’s Church, Walkerville.

The couple moved to Western Australia where Fred worked for a time at Mount Magnet as a policeman. Their first child Daphne Gwynneth Mary was born at Mount Magnet on 28 October 1896. Their second child Frederick William Hugh was born at Port Adelaide in 1899 after the family returned to South Australia.

In 1900 Fred was serving as a member of the South Australian Permanent Artillery when he enlisted as a member of the 4th Contingent of the South Australian Imperial Bushmen at the rank of sergeant for service in South Africa for the Boer War. The contingent comprising 12 officers, 222 other ranks, with 240 horses, left Port Adelaide in the transport ‘Manhattan’ on 1 May 1900, calling at Fremantle to embark the Fourth Western Australians and disembarked at Port Elizabeth on 19 June.

With the surrender of Johannesburg and Pretoria, the British declared the war to be over on 3 September 1900 however despite the loss of their two capital cities and half of their army, the Boer commanders adopted guerrilla warfare tactics, conducting raids against railways, resource and supply targets, all aimed at disrupting the operational capacity of the British Army. They avoided pitched battles and casualties were light. The South Australian Imperial Bushmen were employed as part of the force pursuing Boer General Christiaan De Wet who was considered to be the most formidable leader of the Boer guerrillas.

Thirteen members of the contingent died or were killed before it embarked for home on 5 July 1901 at East London in the transport ‘Britannic’ arriving at Adelaide on 27 July.

In Adelaide, Fred continued his service with the militia and was commissioned as a second lieutenant with the Australian Army Service Corps in January 1911 under the ‘call to arms’ implemented by the new Defence Act.

Fred and Edith had five more children between 1902 and 1917. The family is shown on the electoral rolls from 1939 as living at 12 North Street Frewville and Fred was employed as a mental hospital attendant.

Fred died in Parkside South Australia on 25 May 1950.