Williamfrederick Kreutzer Was My Grandpa and Was Actually Named Frederick William. (His

SUMMARY

WilliamFrederick Kreutzer was my Grandpa and was actually named Frederick William. (His wife Mable always called him Fred). He actually joined the RN when he was about 13, and spent 3 'boy' years and 5 man years in it. He developed a reputation as a bit of a self-taught doctor and medic but his practices were pretty rough and ready from what I understand. My Dad is fond of telling us about the time Grandpa had a nasty toothache and after putting up with it for a while, ended up pulling his own tooth out. They certainly bred them tough in those days.

Grandpa also fought in the Boxer rebellion and had several “special” royal chinese designs tattooed on his body in recognition of his service there. He was also a Baptist lay preacher for some time. He married my Grandma Mable Ann Edwards in the early 1905. I know that Aunty Betty (Beatrice) was born in 1906 and Dad was born on December 9th 1908. He was christened John Douglas but has always been “Doug” finally Aunty Glad in 1911.

Did you know that Aunty Betty married Guy Turner. He had a daughter Dorothy from a previous marriage and she is the Grandmother of the Australian spin bowler Shane Warne. Betty and Guy had a son Lyn who became head of forensic science in Melbourne. His only child was a son Paul who was born with severe cerebral palsy and was confined to a wheelchair.

During the first World War, as a merchant seaman, my understanding is that Grandpa was in Australia and joined the army here. He returned to England and worked from an Army Base. During that time, his family relocated from Tongwynlais to be near him. My dad was enlisted as a mascot and he used to tour the camps with a famous boxer of the day putting on exhibition matches of David and Goliath to raise funds for war bonds and to entertain the troops. My Grandpa, we have since discovered, used to disappear behind German lines at times.

After the war Grandpa brought the family to Australia. Their ship was quarantined at Portsea when they first arrived due to a small pox scare. Apparently they had been innoculated because I know that Nana Kreutzer suffered terribly from an allergic reaction and almost lost her arm.

They settled on a small farm at Glen Waverly and Dad finished his last few months of schooling there in Grade 6. He sat for and passed the School Certificate in all subjects except Australian History. Aunty Betty who was 15 at the time had been teaching school in Wales before they left and she continued her profession here. Aunty Glad still had two more years of schooling to complete.

Grandpa opened his own detective agency a short while later and had a suite of rooms in the city centre. I know that he was called upon to assist when the police strike was on in the city.

Dad also led a colourful few years during which he knocked around a fair bit. Times were tough and I know that he took to the road with a swag for a brief period. By that stage the family had taken in a young Norwegian seaman who had jumped ship and he became like a brother to Dad. He took the name Frederick Carlson. They tried roust-a-boutingin a shearing shed and travelled as boxers with a Jimmy Sharman’s tent show on a boxing circuit. Dad worked for his father as a detective for a while and then Dad and Uncle Fred worked a goldmine in the mountains near Jamieson for a couple of years. Grandpa Kreutzer had been given the title deed as payment of a debt.

Finally Doug joined Johns and Waygoods as a rigger, and worked his way up through boiler maker, foreman and after studying at RMIT, he was 2nd in charge of the Erection department.

Although he had been in the CMF in 1930, when he tried to enlist in WW2 (4 times), he was denied on the grounds of essential services. However he had the highest security clearance and worked on many sensitive sites within Australia, new guinea and other overseas areas.