Frederick was born in February 1894 and attended Ilford County High School between 28th April 1908 and 16th November 1908, Year 9 in modern schools. He joined the school after his family moved to the area from Taunton in Devon. In his early life, he had also lived in Southampton and he is remembered in the Southampton Cenotaph project (along with a photograph). He left school to seek employment as a commercial clerk. By 1911, Frederick was working as a clerk in a wholesale meat firm.
Frederick was the middle child of Thomas and Ada Weaver. He had two brothers, Harold and Percy. His father, Thomas, was the manager in a meat import company. The family lived in Elgin Road, Ilford.
Frederick was a 22 year old Sub-Lieutenant in the Anson Battalion R. N. Division (Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve) when he died on 13th November 1916 during an attack on Beaumont-Hamel. His body is buried in the Ancre British Cemetery at Beaumont-Hamel (Grave II. B. 35). By this time, his parents had moved to Sydenham in South London.
In 1918, his brother was badly wounded at Passchendaele; a shell smashed his right hand, which had to be amputated four inches above the wrist.
Research by Andrew Emeny, History Teacher at ICHS
Sources:
Ancestry.com
ICHS school records and magazines
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
The Southampton Cenotaph Project website
Note
Ilford County High School started life as the Park Higher Grade School in 1901 in Balfour Road, Ilford. It was renamed Ilford County High School (or initially County High School, Ilford) in the years after the school’s management was transferred from Ilford School Board to Essex Education Committee in 1904.