Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Fred was one of the original 29 who entered the war directly from Aldershot (south of London) where they had been training. Fred was one of 8 children who resided at Wollongbar in northern NSW. He served in a minimum of 7 battles during the war and and received two of the Boer War medals due to the number of clasps he received. He returned from the war and his daily diary was lost but copied by a sister, Josephine, before this and the copy remains in the family of his sister, Irene's children as do his war medals and other materials that he returned with.

Sadly, Fred had an early death as he was returning from a dance several years later (he was engaged at the time) and his body was found by his siblings as they returned several hours later. It was thought that his horse fell on him after suffering a heart attack. His niece (by marriage thought that his ghost haunted the family house and mentioned this to the writer of this note.)

Fred's Family and connections.
Fred's brother, Billy, served in WW1 as did his sister, Irene's husband (William Bootes). Another brother, Walter, was a director of Norco later dying when his tractor fell on him. His eldest brother, Arthur, moved to San Francisco and lived there during the time of the 1905 disaster. Another sister, C, died in her sleep as a teenager. His paternal grandfather sold Nestle the patent for condensed milk and his uncle, Edwin, an early agricultural researcher and near neighbour brought a strain of paspalum grass to Australia which enabled the dairy industry to thrive on the North Coast. The family was well known in the community and their farm is now the TAFE branch to be found at Wollongbar in Northern NSW. Fred's cousins, wife, Mary Seccombe was the family historian and President of the Richmond River Historical Society (and incidentally cousin to Margaret Olley, the painter.)