frederick millidine + dorothy cecilia williams
Frederick was born on 14 February 1897 at the family home at 6 Manning Street in Limehouse to Charles Christopher Mellidine and Lydia Grandy. Several years after his birth, his family left Limehouse and settled in Canning Town in neighbouring Essex.
When he was eighteen years old, Fred enlisted in the army and was posted to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers in the Welsh Regiment. On 26 March 1916, he was deployed to France until his return to England on 7 December 1917. He remained in the Welsh Regiment until 22 September 1918 when he was transferred to the Labour Corps. He was discharged from the army on 13 February 1919 and shortly after he was awarded both the British War and the Victory medal.
In May 1919, Fred started working as a Storeman, a civilian position, at the No 4 Stores Depot at the RAF base at Ickenham in the London Borough of Hillingdon. Two years later, he was lodging with John and Jessie James at 13 How’s Close in Uxbridge and it was while living in Uxbridge that he met his future wife, Dorothy Cecilia Williams. She was born in nearby Hayes on 16 April 1903 to Walter Thomas Williams and Florence Louisa Goddard.
Fred and Dorothy were married at the Uxbridge Registry Office on 13 February 1922 and at the time, Fred was living at 33 The Lynch in Uxbridge not far from his previous lodgings on How’s Close. It appears their wedding was a matter of urgency as two months later, their first son Ronald Walter was born and just over a year later, on 26 July 1923, they welcomed a second son named Charles Albert.
One month after Charles’ birth, twenty-six year old Fred joined the Royal Air Force as an Aircraftman 2. He was still working at the Stores and his enlistment papers note that he was a trained electrician and aircraft mechanic. They also include a physical description of Fred — he was 5’5" tall with light brown hair, hazel eyes, and a fresh complexion — and noted that he was a Primitive Methodist when most of his family were traditionally Church of England. Fred was reclassed with the rank of Electrian II, Aircraftman 1 and on 1 July 1925, he was promoted to the rank of Lead Aircraftman or LAC. He was posted to several different squadrons and on 12 December 1925, he was sent to Baghdad to serve in the RAF Iraq Command leaving Dorothy alone with their two young children.
He returned to England in 1928 sailing from Port Said in Egypt on board the Dumana and arrived in Plymouth on 31 July. Fred may have left the RAF after his stint in Iraq as there are no further service entries on his military file and this date also ties in with his initial term of engagement of five years but he may have re-enlisted or perhaps stayed on in a civilian position. In 1930, Dorothy and her mother Florence appear in the Electoral Registers at Lorne Villa on the High Road in Hillingdon and although Fred was listed with them, he was marked as being absent but he does appear with them in the following year’s register at the same address.
By 1937, it appears that their marriage had broken down and Fred was no longer living with his wife; Dorothy was living with her mother and younger brother, Albert Henry Williams, at 27 Widmore Road in Uxbridge and she was still there the following year. Fred does not appear in the 1939 Register but his wife and two sons were still living on Widmore Road where Ronald was working as an Apprentice Radio Engineer and Charles an Aero Fitting Apprentice. In the early 1940s, Fred was living in Wiltshire and may have been working at the RAF base at Boscombe Down or the Old Sarum Airfield but he left the RAF several years later and emigrated to Kenya
and the Super Pit gold mine
His son Charles married June Fenner in Maidstone, Kent in 1953 and three years later, his father died in Leytonstone, Essex but it is not known if Fred attended either event or if he maintained contact with his family. He does not appear in another record until 1962 when he flew from Mauritius to Perth, Australia on Qantas Airlines flight on 29 December. He eventually settled in Kalgoorlie in Western Australia, living at 52 Salisbury Road, and worked as a Prospector until his death in 1984 aged 87 years. Fred was buried at the Kalgoorlie Cemetery on 7 May 1984.
Fred’s eldest son, Ronald, also emigrated to Australia but returned to England four years later. In the late 1940s, Ronald was living in North London, first in Tottenham and later Finchley, and working as a Camera Man for the BBC when he decided to move to Australia. On 3 Dec 1949, twenty-seven year old Ronald sailed from London on board the P&O Steamship Ranchi bound for Sydney. He stopped in Kent to say goodbye to his mother and brother and the last address he listed on the passenger manifest was his mother’s home at Brookwood Farm in Headcorn, Kent. The Ranchi arrived in Freemantle on 1 January 1950, one of many stops on the journey, before continuing on to Melbourne.
Ronald married a woman named Eileen and they settled in Maldon, a former Gold Rush town, south of Bendigo. In 1954, they were living on Lowther Street in Maldon and Ronald’s occupation was listed as Farmer which was quite a change from his career with the BBC. Shortly after, Ronald returned to England with Eileen but it appears that she could not adapt to the change and on 10 August 1956, she returned to Melbourne sailing from London on board the Largs Bay. Her intended address listed on the passenger manifest was Templeton Street in Maldon and her occupation was Waitress. In the 1960s, she lived alone in a number of different suburbs of Melbourne including Collingwood, Abbotsford and Newmarket but she never remarried.
Dorothy Cecilia Williams lived at Brookwood Farm until her death in 1987 and her son Ronald also remained in Kent until his death in April 2000. Her younger son Charles lived in Maidstone with his wife and their five children before moving to Broadstairs in the late 1960s. He died in Broadstairs in 2002.