Royal Air Force
Frederick Gerald Strange was born in Cheltenham in 1892, the son of Frederick William and Ada Strange of 5 Trinity Terrace, Portland Street, Cheltenham. The couple had three children. They were also associated with 2 Priory Buildings, High Street, Cheltenham.
Prior to the war Frederick worked with his father in the family business of Westley’s booksellers, 13 Promenade Villas and was a former apprentice with Robertson & Smith (Dentists) in Cheltenham for a period up to 1910. At the time of the 1911 Census the family address was given as Alconbury, St John’s, Albion Street. He was an enthusiastic motorcyclist and volunteered for service in the Royal Flying Corps on 13 September 1915, as a motorcyclist. He served with 75 Squadron in France from 16 January to 27 September 1916 and came back to England as an instructor where he was stricken with influenza, dying of acute double pneumonia at Ipswich Military Hospital, Ranelagh Road, on 24 July 1918, aged 26. He had been on the point of taking a commission.
He had married Dorothy Milward at the parish church in Redmarley on 29 September 1915. She died, aged 24, in a Gloucestershire nursing home on 18 October 1916.
Frederick Strange was buried in Cheltenham Cemetery, where a CWGC headstone marks his grave. He is commemorated on the Cheltenham Borough War Memorial and on the Roll of Honour at Holy Trinity Church and Cheltenham Grammar School.
A photograph of him appears in The Graphic of 3 August 1918 and his Service record is preserved at the National Archives under reference AIR 79/111/8552.
Researched by Graham Adams 7 February 2013
(Acknowledgement to ‘Leaving All that was Dear – Cheltenham and the Great War’ by Joe Devereux and Graham Sacker)