| Description | Work completed by volunteer includes the following information:
Fred Stephenson was born in Beverley the 16 Feb 1896 and baptised at Beverley Minster the 4 Mar 1896, the son of Fred and Annie Stephenson (nee Southwick Taylor). The family lived on Sparkmill Terrace; later Jubilee Terrace, Minstermoorgate and No 1 Keldgate became the family home before 37 Eastgate became their permanent abode. Fred senior was a bricklayer and builder and Fred junior was to follow in this trade, working in the family business.
Fred served in the Royal Navy, initially serving in the Royal Naval Voluntary Reserve (RNVR) until joining the Royal Navy at Portsmouth on 21 Oct 1916. He served as a carpenter and left as a joiner though the significance of this designation is not known. He trained initially at Portsmouth then at HMS Fisgard in west Wales and then at HMS Dolphin at Gosport. On 9 Oct 1917 he was assigned to HMS Hyacinth, a cruiser built in 1897, for the duration of the war. HMS Hyacinth was on the Cape Station based at Simonstown naval base in South Africa and spent much time on patrol in the South Atlantic and the Indian Ocean. Fred was awarded the War and Victory Medals. He left the navy in Sep 1919.
Fred worked as a joiner in Beverley, living in Eastgate but he is recorded in the 1939 Register as being a Civilian Foreman of Works for the War Department in the Scarborough area, possibly involved in building coastal defences. He was to spend the rest of his life in the Scarborough area. On 17 Mar 1944 in Scarborough he married Kathleen Shields, born 1914 in Bridlington, a shop assistant. They had a son, David Beverley, born 1941
Fred and Kathleen later lived in Osgodby, near Scarborough. Fred died in 1984 aged 88.
Includes photograph, information taken from , census, military records, Commonwealth War Graves, newspapers |