Constable, Frederick Henry (Fred)
Age: 27
Date of birth: 1914 (Q4)
Parents: William Ernest and Renee Kate Constable (nee London)
Wife:
Address: Bowling Green Street, Warwick (parents’ home)
Occupation: Farmer
Fred was born in Witney, Oxfordshire during the third quarter of 1914. He had an older brother, William John, born in 1912.
His father William Ernest (1888-1967) was a farmer. His mother Renee Kate (1886-1967) was born in Warwick and baptised at St Paul’s Church. William and Renee married in Warwick in 1911.
According to the 1921 census Frederick nearly 7 years old, was living with his parents and his brother William aged 9 at 2 Bowling Green Street. Frederick’s father was a Motor Haulage Contractor, and his mother was a schoolteacher working at Westgate School.
Fred attended Warwick School. This article in the Warwickshire Advertiser tells how Fred emigrated to New Zealand in 1930, with a group of other Warwick School boys, not long before his 16th birthday. He departed Southampton on 19th August 1930 for Wellington aboard the ship Rangitata and his parents joined him 7 years later.
According to ships’ passenger list records Fred’s parents travelled back to England after the war, arriving back in London on 22nd September 1946.
Military Service
Rank & Number: Sergeant, 2668
Regiment/Service: 24th Battalion, 6th New Zealand Infantry Brigade, 2nd New Zealand Division
Brigade/Division:
Date of death: 27th November 1941
Cause of death/Battle: Killed in action
Commemorated/Buried: Buried in the Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma, Tobruk, Libya
Awards:
Commemorated locally at:
Fred enlisted in Territorial Army in New Zealand. By March 1940 he had left New Zealand as a corporal in the Second New Zealand Expeditionary Force.
Contributors
- Unlocking Warwick Research Group
- Warwick Advertiser excerpts courtesy of Warwickshire County Record Office
- Cemetery photograph courtesy of Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)