Frederick Arthur Berridge: Thursday 7th June 1917
Frederick was a colonial civil servant in the Natal Government Office and gave his address to the army as the High Commission of the Union of South Africa. He became a Lance Corporal (703344) in 1st/23rd Battalion London Regiment.
He enlisted in Putney and from the enlistment form we know; he was 33yrs 30 days, 5’11½” tall, weighed 151 lbs, had a 39” chest with 4” expansion and had very good physical development. He gave his occupation as Clerk. He arrived in France at Le Havre on 29 September 1916, and was killed in action, and is commemorated on the Menin Gate.
Frederick was the son of Thomas, a bank accountant, and Harriet Berridge. His father died before the outbreak of War, and his mother lived at 11 Althorp Road. He was one of eight children, two of whom died in infancy. His older brother Hubert Stanley was a manager of an estate agent’s office. Hubert married Phyllis, and on 6 March 1914 their daughter, Margery Phyllis, was baptised. His four older sisters were Florence Cooper, Mary Louise Anderson (who lived with the family together with her son Alec Thomas born ~1900), Winifred McCabe and Ada Heath. All children were baptised at St Anne’s.
Frederick’s effects were sent to his brother, Hubert Stanley, at 57 Ravenslea Road and consisted of “letters, wrist watch, and cigarette case”. By 1924 Frederick’s mother had died, and his brother, by now living at 47 Ellerton Road, finally received Fredrick’s war medals after querying the non-receipt.