Frederick Athroll; Driver, Army Service Corps.

By 1911 Frederick had left Melton and was working in Bromley, Kent, as a chauffeur for Cosmo Bevan, a director of Barclay’s Bank and member of the Barclay’s founding family. Two years later, on 19th October 1913, Frederick married Lily Ware and very shortly after, their only child, Freda Lilly, was born.

Frederick enlisted in the Army Service Corps (ASC) as a driver at their Grove Park Depot in Greenwich on 9th March 1915. Less than three weeks later, he was travelling to Egypt with 244 Mechanical Transport Company (MT Coy), on the Divisional Supply Column, moving stores to the front line. After six months, the 244 MT Coy ASC was posted to Salonika in support of the 10th (Irish) Division, arriving in mid-October 1915. In November, the British forces had moved to Doiran where the forward line was in a mountainous region. Motor transport was not the most practical method in this terrain and the 244 MT Coy ASC were converted to a pack transport role, with mules to replace lorries.

The blizzards of winter turned to rain and the area around Doiran became a swampy morass which, as the weather warmed up, became the ideal conditions for mosquitos – malaria was rife amongst the soldiers. Frederick was one of many who contracted the disease which troubled him for the rest of his life.

In February 1918, Frederick boarded a ship for England arriving on 5th March 1918. He remained in the UK until October when he was deployed to France until his demobilisation in April 1919, after which he returned to work for Cosmo Bevan.

For his war service, Frederick received the 1914-15 Star and the British War and Victory Medals. In 1939, Frederick was living in Enfield, London, with his wife and daughter, still working as a chauffeur. He died in 1966 in Enfield.