Remembering Fred

At the end of March we said goodbye to another one of the ever diminishing band of great old warriors who served with the Suffolk Regiment in Malaya, Fred Mullender.

Fred was Lowestoft born and bred. He worked as a carpenter and bricklayer before he was called up in late 1951 to complete his National Service. He ended up being sent to Colchester to complete his basic training before being sent to join 1 Suffolk in Malaya.

He served first in ‘B’ Compnay HQ where he was quite adept at playing the bugle, but a wrong call blown one day, that saw everyone turn out for a fire picket promptly saw him posted to 4 Platoon where he was to remain for the remainder of his service in Malaya.

Together with his close mate John Culley, he saw out his soldiering, with the ‘Angels’ - as 4 Platoon had by then rebranded themselves, (previously they had been known as the ‘Deaths Heads) before coming home with the Battalion in January 1953.

The army life suited Fred, but an offer to return to his old firm was too tempting not to take up and so within a week of his demob, be was back with them and was to remain with them until he decided to go it alone in the 1960s.

Close to retirement, Fred again returned to them, this time in their undertaking division and was to remain with them until he ‘properly’ retired in the 1980s.

It was in his retirement that he returned to the regiment, joining the Old Comrades Association at nearby Beccles. Somewhat perturbed that he always had to drive to a meeting where he could not have a drink, he along with Tony Coote and Chippy Wood, decided to form a branch of the OCA in Lowestoft where he could at least walk to meetings and have a drink as well!

Fred always had a smile and rarely did one ever see him gloomy. He divided his time between his garden which was always immaculately maintained, the OCA and a secret hobby that many never knew about - airfix kits. His bungalow was testament to the hours he had put into them with every room filled with models, from battleships, to planes and even the odd train in there as well.

My good chum Taff Gillingham, managed in 2014, to get him to London for a special television programme being made about people being reunited with one another after many years. In a very posh London hotel, he was brought face-to-face with his former comrade in 4 Platoon, Ted Philips (later to become a legendary footballer for Ipswich Town) with the pair chatting for some hours about campaigns past in Malaya. As one sat with them, it was like being transported back in time as two men in their eighties spoke like teenagers to one another about events that happened sixty-odd years before, it was a rare privilege for us to listen to them.

He was chuffed at making it into my book about the Suffolks in Malaya, but he never did forgive me for accidentally misspelling his surname and always used to mention it every time we met!

Fred was a gentleman with a mischievous sparkle in his eye. He still cracked jokes and pulled everyone’s leg even in his last years, and still impressed everyone with his dance moves on the floor at OCA events. I will miss him very much.

Farewell chum.