Fred Shorter

It is difficult to determine which of three contemporaneous Fred Shorters this was, all, like their fathers born in Wheatley. It seems most likely to be the one baptised on 2 November 1890 as Frederick Henney (Henry?) Shorter. He was listed in the 1901 Census as born in 1891, son of James Shorter, cowman on farm in 1901 and Harriet born in Garsington but said to be of Littleworth, living on Bell Alley in 1891 and at Rock Cottage in 1911. He was cousin to Harry Jones who wrote to Harriet Shorter, his aunt, about the death of Thomas Harding, in 1915. He was listed in the 1911 Census as a garden labourer and was probably the one who was recorded as attending Wheatley Elementary school in 1896 and the Night School in 1901. Frederick Henry Shorter, born 1891, was buried in Wheatley Church in 1964, his wife Sarah having predeceased him in 1952. Records show that a Frederick Shorter served with the Royal Garrison Artillery with the Service nos. 848 and 292552.

The two alternative possibilities are: (1) the Fred Shorter born in 1884, son of James and Ellen/Eleanor, who was living in 1911 at 4 Bossom's Yard, St Ebbe's, Oxford, working as a lamplighter and married to Elizabeth born in Fringford, Oxon.; and (2) the one born in 1887, son of John Shorter, agricultural labourer, and Esther, who were living on Westfield Road.