Another one of the brothers of Frank and Charles, he was born on 26th August 1900.
Fred enlisted initially in the 4th (Reserve) Territorial Battalion, Suffolk Regiment, as Private No 2870, on the 18th November 1914. He declared his age to be 17 years and 3 months but of course was only 14!
He was five feet four and a half inches tall, weighed 112 pounds, had light brown hair and brown eyes. He managed to maintain his deception until 31st December 1915 when he was discharged “having made a miss-statement as to age”. There were, of course, many cases of boys trying (and succeeding) to enlist and fight but even aged 17 Fred would not have immediately served abroad. How the army found out about his true age can only be subject to conjecture. His mother, Amelia, seemed happy enough to mention her son in the newspaper article as a serving soldier. However there were many cases of mothers letting the Army know of their son’s true age to prevent them being sent to fight and it might be that Amelia decided to take this course of action.
This is not the end of the story as Fred decided to enlist in the Royal Naval Reserve. Known as Robert Frederick Garrod in this case he was enrolled as a deck Boy in the Trawler Section from 12th June 1917, then as a Deck Hand from 26th August 1918 until he was demobilized. He received a commendation on 10th June 1918 from the Lords of the Admiralty for the attempted rescue from drowning of Leading Seaman Edward Humphries, of HMS Dido on 18th December 1917. As a result of this he was awarded a Royal Humane Society Bronze medal on 30th March 1918. Fred was demobilized from the RNR on 28th July 1919 but he hadn’t had enough of the service life as he then enlisted in the Royal Artillery on 22nd October 1919. He served with them until 2nd January 1923. On discharge he was described as “sober, honest and hardworking. A very well behaved man who is accustomed to the care of horses and harness.”
Fred is also recorded on the School Roll of Honour as serving with the 4th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment.
He married Violet Vinyard in Ipswich in 1927 and in 1939 the couple are living at Prospect Cottage (Parish Pond), Bramford.
Fred died in Ipswich in 1990 age 89.
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