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Fred Coulthurst
Born 23rd September 1918
Died 9th December 2008
His father, also called Fred, was a farmer and they lived at Loudscales Farm in Longridge. As a child Fred attended Bleasdale National School and R. Smith’s Boys’ School (in Longridge) before going to Preston Grammar School in 1930. He was a pupil at the Grammar School from 10th September 1930 until July 1937.
In his application for his son to become a pupil at the Grammar School, his father wrote to the Headmaster, providing the following information:
Their farm was 11 miles from the school and it was intended that Fred would cycle the 3 miles to the Forresters Arms in Longridge. There he would leave his cycle and catch the Ribble ‘bus to Preston, followed by the Corporation tramcar to the school. He hoped that the School would find this arrangement to be satisfactory.
It is interesting to observe that no arrangements were considered for such things as bad weather! Three miles on a bike, from a hill farm down into Longridge, followed by a ‘bus and tramcar journey, on a dark, bleak winter’s morning must have made for an exhilarating start to the day – especially in the knowledge that it must all be repeated in reverse in the dark of the late afternoon.
After leaving the Grammar School in 1937, Fred became a student at Oriel College, Oxford. He joined the universities section of the Preston Grammar School Old Boys Association the following year on 16th August 1938. A year later, in December 1939, he was waiting to be called-up and he subsequently joined an Anti-Aircraft Unit. (In typical Fred fashion, he commented that he found the Germans to be most unsporting in their behaviour as they wouldn’t fly in nice straight lines to be shot down.)
Fred returned to Preston Grammar School as an assistant master quite soon after the end of the war and became a life member of the Association in 1946. He was a regular attendee at Association Dinners throughout the 1950’s and 60’s.
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