Very little is known about Fred other than, in the 1920s, his parents were living at 190 Gorton Road, Reddish. His father had died by then and it is only known that his first name started with E. His mother was Annie. Regimental records, published after the War, indicate Fred was born in the Stockport area and enlisted into the army in the town.

Fred probably enlisted into the army as a conscript in late 1916 and will have gone overseas with the newly formed 2/8^th Battalion in the early spring of 1917. On 23 March 1917, the Battalion was in trenches at Windy Corner near the French village of Givenchy. It may have been their first tour of duty after arrival in France.

The Battalion's War Diary records "At 10.15am enemy blew a mine opposite D Sap causing us four casualties but little damage to trenches or sap". Three of the men were only injured but Fred had been killed. He was the Battalion's first fatality.