Frederick William Chard

Fred Chard
Fred Chard, as he was known, was a very well-known, and well-loved character on and around Blackpool's Golden Mile.
Born on 18 October 1889 in Salford, his birth was registered at the Greengate, Salford registry office.
His father was "Lieutenant" Ted Chard, who toured Britain with travelling fairgrounds, and an act billed as "Lieutenant Chard and his Performing Dogs", a monkey was also part of the act. Bob Chard can remember Captain Chard appearing at the Pleasure Beach (It was called the fairground in those days), in about 1929 - 1930, and staying at 246 Central Drive, Blackpool.
Fred's mother was a florist, and had very long dark hair, which was said to be long enough to reach the ground. Her maiden name was Siddaway, and she was from the Birmingham area.
Fred spent an amount of time around the Black Country area, and talked frequently about towns such as Cradley Heath, so it is likely that much of his upbringing was in that area. He also retained a slight accent from that area, the word "toys", for example, he pronounced "ties".
Around 1915, he was in the British Army stationed at Mullingar in Ireland.
Fred boxed at welterweight while in the army, and was a PTI (Physical Training Instructor).
We have been told that Fred used to be a fairground fighter. If you could last three rounds against him, you won half-a-crown. Not many ever won!
His other principal occupation while in the army, was as a driver for the Colonel, he frequently used to tell of taking the Colonel's wife into town, in a horse-drawn vehicle, as one of his most regular jobs.
Fred met his future wife Gladys Clark at her mother's guest house in Oddfellow Street Blackpool. The house name "Our House" was carved into the stonework. She was the eldest of six children, the others being Emma, Dick, Charlie, Arthur and Bill.
Gladys' father had been a butcher on Bradford market. It has been said that the other butchers would remain closed until after Mr. Clark had sold out!
Oddfellow Street was only a very short distance from Blackpool's Central Promenade (Golden Mile), in an area of fisherman's terraced cottages, now long since demolished. There were about six bedrooms, and the main clientele were seasonal workers, including theatricals such as Gracie Fields, because of its proximity to the Queen's Theatre.
Fred had taken lodgings there and was employed by a Mr. Harrison as a landau driver.
Fred also worked as a labourer for Dick Clark, apparently he used to carry stone window mullions single-handed; this was normally a two-man job.
Fred and Gladys married at Chapel Street Methodist Chapel, and lived in the Blackpool area for the rest of their lives.
Fred and Gladys had three sons, Frederick William (Fred), Horace (known as Bob), and Stephen (Steve).
Fred was born on 18th November 1917, Horace on 30th September 1919, and Steve on 18th September 1921.
Each of the three sons served in a different force during the second world war. Fred joined the merchant navy, Bob was in the army as an engineer, and Steve was in the airforce as a rear gunner. Steve died from heart disease at the early age of 36, Fred junior died on 30th June 1982.
Gladys was an entrepreneur and businesswoman in the days before women were really accepted in business.
She quickly realised that Fred could earn very good money as a Landau driver, and she soon made sure that they bought and operated their own landau. Unfortunately, Fred's extremely kind and generous nature meant that this business venture never made as much money as it should have done. On his way back from fares, Fred would see friends or groups of children, and give them free rides to wherever they happened to be going. He really was a very popular character, probably the only person against whom I have never heard a bad word.
Gladys started a house-building business, which employed the three sons as a joiner, bricklayer, and plumber-electrician. To ensure they learnt the necessary skills, she asked local builders to take them on as unpaid apprentices, providing they were put to work on their appropriate tasks, pre-empting similar youth employment schemes of the 1990's.
Years later, the family business operated amusement arcades, and side-shows on Blackpool Promenade.
Once again, Fred's generosity caused problems, as he would often allow children free admission into many of the side-shows!

Boxing Champion
Our photograph shows Fred in his boxing outfit, with two seconds. We believe the photo was taken about 1920, but we don't know the identity of either of his seconds, or the exact date of the photo. We would appreciate receiving any information about the names or date.
One suggestion we received was that the man on the viewer's right could be Sam Theaker who was the husband of Annie Wright.

Fred Chard died on 27th December 1972.