LEADING SIGNALMAN FREDERICK SYDNEY YOUNG 5385
Frederick Young was born in Bristol in England in August 1899, and he enlisted in the RAN as a Boy 2nd Class on the 8th of September 1915. He trained on the Harbour Training Ship HMAS Tingara and was advanced to Boy 1st Class on the 9th of June 1916, to Signal Boy on the 21st of June 1916 and then to Ordinary Signalman 2nd Class on his 17th birthday.
In October 1917 Frederick posted to HMAS Cerberus for five months before proceeding to the United Kingdom to join the Light Cruiser HMAS Melbourne. He was advanced to Ordinary Signalman on his 18th birthday and to Signalman on his 19th Birthday. He remained on Melbourne until the ship paid off into Reserve in August 1919, and after two months at Cerberus, probably on an advancement course, he joined Melbourne’s near sister HMAS Brisbane. He would serve on Brisbane for seven months before returning to Melbourne when it recommissioned in May 1920.
In 1920 Frederick requested to be afforded a free discharge from the RAN. This was approved subject to him joining the Royal Australian Fleet Reserve, he accepted, and he discharged from the RAN in December 1920. In 1922 he married Ruby Iris Trees in the NSW town of Macksville. He completed short periods of RAFR time on HMAS Penguin in 1922, 1938 & 1939, HMAS Adelaide in 1924 and HMAS Melbourne in 1924.
Between the wars Frederick and Ruby lived in Bowraville on the Mid-North Coast with Fred working as a labourer and later as a share farmer.
In February 1942 Frederick was called up for service and after refresher courses at HMAS Cerberus he was promoted to Leading Signalman in December 1942. His service record post 1942 is indecipherable, however it can be determined that he served at one period in January 1945 in HMAS Madang, a shore establishment in Papua and New Guinea. He discharged from the RAN a final time in May 1946 and returned to the Nambucca Valley to live at Talarm just west of Macksville. By 1958 he had given up farming and he and Ruby had moved into Macksville with Frederick working as a barman.
Frederick Sydney Young passed away in Macksville on the 21st of September 1988 at the age of 89. Ruby would pass in 1996 and the couple are buried together in the Methodist Section of the Macksville Cemetery.
Sources
Service Record - Australian National Archives
Nominal Roll - Department of Veterans Affairs
