Frederick George Ludkin

Private - Service No.18870 - 2nd Battalion Norfolk Regiment

Private - Service No.27867 - 6th Battalion Royal Dublin Fusiliers

Frederick George Ludkin, the son of William Ludkin and his wife Anna Maria (Humpheys), was born in 1882 at Forncett St. Mary, Norfolk. He was the second of six children, John (1880), Frank (1884), Leonard (1887), Clement (1891) and Ivy (1895). William Ludkin, from Forncett St. Mary, and Anna Humphreys, from Ipswich, were married in early 1879 in Norwich, where Anna was working, and settled in Forncett St. Mary where all their children were born with the exception of Frank who was born in Fersfield. William farmed 12 acres in Forncett, single handed, to earn a living but, in the late 1890s, he took a job as groom and gardener in Hapton, Norfolk, and some ten years later moved into Norwich, to 76 Waldeck Road, where he worked as a gardener. They remained in Norwich until William died in 1921 at the age of 61 and Anna, some seven years later, aged 69.

Frederick was educated at Forncett and, when he left school, began working on the land. He continued this occupation when he moved, with the family, to Hapton but would appear to have followed his father into gardening when the family finally relocated to Norwich. In 1906 Frederick married Annie Maria Brookes, born in Chelsea in 1882, in Norwich where they both now lived and worked. Frederick and Annie settled at 72 Weldeck Road in Norwich, just two doors away from his parents and here they had at least two children. Marion Ena Ludkin was born in 1907 and her brother Frederick William Ludkin arrived in 1912. Frederick Ludkin died, in Norwich in 1936 and his widow, Annie, in 1959 at Stoke Holy Cross. Both Marion and Frederick married and their children, or more likely, grandchildren almost certainly survive today but have not been located yet.

In 1915 Frederick joined the Norfolk Regiment and on 13th October that year arrived in Gallipoli. The Norfolk Regiment and the Royal Dublin Fusiliers were among many regiments fighting the Turks at Suvla Bay and other battles where heavy losses were incurred. It is probably during this period that Frederick was transferred to the R.D.F. The regiment moved on to Egypt and Palestine and it appears that, while there, Frederick was taken ill or injured as, on 18th December 1917, he was discharged from the army as "no longer fit for active service". Frederick's army service records do not survive but we know he was awarded the 1915 Star, British War Medal, Victory Medal and the Silver War Badge (issued to men who were discharged early from the services due to illness or injury).

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