Frederick Charles Constable (1876 - 1920)

Born 17 Jun 1876 in Auckland, New Zealand

Husband of Ada Ranford (Throssell) Constable — married 15 Sep 1914 in Northam, Western Australia, Australia

Died 22 Feb 1920 at age 43 in Bairnsdale, Victoria, Australia

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Biography

His parents were Thomas Constable b 1839 in London and Alice Mantel and they married in 1866 in New Zealand. In total his parents had 6 sons and 5 daughters. Thomas sailed to Melbourne in 1850 on the Clifton from with his parents. In 1862 he immigrated to New Zealand and became a builder in Auckland. In 1889 he moved back to Melbourne and his family followed in 1891.

Some of his siblings were Alice, Jessie, Emily, Amy, Arthur, Will, Private Tom and the late Private Harry Constable.

He had been in Europe on business, from June 1911 to January 1912, as a wholesale chemist, importer and a Blickensderfer typewriter agent. He was in partnership with Francis Herbert Neale in Perth, Western Australia. During this first trip to the other side of the world, Fred Constable attended the annual convention of British Blickensderfer agents at the Waldorf Hotel, London, from January 2-3, 1912.

Neale, Constable and Company Limited had taken over the Australian agency for the Blickensderfer typewriter from another of Fred Constable's West Australian brothers-in-law, Percival William Armstrong (1866-1942), founder of the Armstrong Cycles and Motor Cycles Agency. Armstrong was married to Hugo Throssell's sister Grace Ethel Throssell (1876-1948). Armstrong had in turn secured the Blickensderfer agency from Brisbane typewriter inventor and importer John Stephen Southerden (1865-1937), an uncle of aviation pioneer Sir Charles Kingsford Smith.

He enlisted in the AIF in WWI on 18/9/1915 in Katanning. S/N 2006. His occupation was Wholesale Druggist and his home address was "Glenferrie" Raglan Rd North Perth.

He was initially assigned to the 2/44th. He embarked on 9/8/1916 at Fremantle on the Miltiades as a 2nd Lt. He was later transferred to the 48th Battalion.

On 10/7/1918 in the field in France he was promoted to Captain. In all he served 14 months in France.

He developed Cataracts and had surgry in England.

By 8/3/1919 he was diagnosed as suffering from Shell Shock. He died age 44.

He is buried in Bairdsdale Cemetery.

Sources

• Biography. https://oztypewriter.blogspot.com/2015/08/the-blickensderfer-typewriter-companys.html
• War Service records. National Archives Australia. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3280492
• Victoria BDM records. Death reg 107/1920.
• Death Notice. The Argus 27/2/1920. https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/1678984?searchTerm=constable