Fred Radford Meatyard was born in Penselwood, Somerset, in September 1882. The son of Henry and Ellen Meatyard, they seem to have been distant in his life. Fred was raised by his paternal grandparents, Henry and Caroline, in nearby Wincanton.

Fred was an intelligent young man. The 1901 census found him boarding with printer and stationer Walter Eaglestone and his family, on Erith High Street, in Kent. He was working as a compositor himself, pulling the type together for his boss to print. This appeared to be a springboard for him, and he soon moved to Oxford finding similar work there.

In 1907 Fred briefly returned to Penselwood, where he married Lily Extence in the parish church. The marriage certificate showed that Fred was living in William Street, Oxford, and was still employed as a compositor, working for the local newspaper, the Oxford Chronicle. His father, Henry, is listed as deceased, and as having been employed as an engineer. Lily was the same age as her new husband, and was the daughter of labourer Francis Extence.

The couple moved back to Oxford, and went on to have three children: Linda (born in 1908), Joan (born 1913) and Frances (born in 1915). The 1911 census record found them living in an end of terrace house in Boulter Street, the River Cherwell flowing past the bottom of their cul-de-sac. Theirs was a five-room house, and they had a boarder, Mancunian William Murphy, who was employed as a vocalist and guitarist.

When war came to Europe, Fred stepped up to play his part. He enlisted on 30th August 1916, but was not formally mobilised into the Royal Field Artillery until the following January. Gunner Meatyard’s service records show that he was a wiry man, 5ft 10ins (1.78m) tall, and weighing 126lbs (57.2kg).

In June 1917, Fred was transferred across to the Royal Garrison Artillery, and was sent to France. Aside from a couple of periods of leave, he remained overseas until the end of the war, and was attached to a couple of the regiment’s Siege Batteries.

When hostilities ceased, Gunner Meatyard finally returned to Britain in the summer of 1919. Based on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, while waiting to be demobbed, he fell ill, and was admitted to the Fovant Military Hospital. He was suffering from acute appendicitis, and the condition came on so quickly, that any treatment did not come soon enough. Fred passed away at the hospital on 16th October 1919, at the age of 37 years of age.

Fred Radford Meatyard was brought back to Somerset for burial. He was laid to rest in the quiet graveyard of St Michael’s Church in Penselwood. The newspaper for which he had worked for so long noted that “he was buried with full military honours… Deceased was on the printing staff of the ‘Oxford Chronicle’ for some years… He was a member of the St John’s Ambulance Brigade. Some time ago he returned from the Rhine, having previously fought in France. Much sympathy is felt with the widow and three children, two of whom, it will be remembered, took a prominent part as dancers in the pagent.” [Oxford Chronicle and Reading Gazette: Friday 24th October 1919]

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