A correspondent writes:
A LIFELONG ACADEMIC, local historian, author, priest, teacher, and RAF officer, the Revd Frederick Walter Tom Fuller, who died on 16 December, aged 90, was born in a house on Ermin Street, Lower Stratton, a village near the railway town of Swindon.
That was just one year before the end of the Great War, but he did not see his father, who was serving in Kenya, until he was nearly two years old. The second of seven, Fred was the son of Leslie Tom Fuller and Eliza Annie (Nancy) Thomas, formerly Goddard.
Fred attended the local village school, and later the Commonweal School, Swindon, where his love of history was nurtured. In his teens, he joined his parents at St Margaret’s Church, where he sang in the choir, was the organist, and became a Sunday-school teacher. His first job was in the Swindon Town Clerk’s Department until the Second World War.
A veteran of Dunkirk, he rose to the rank of Squadron Leader and aide-de-camp to the Air Officer commanding several stations. He was the youngest at the time to reach the position, appropriate enough for Fred to be introduced to King George VI on his visit to the RAF College, Cranwell.
Leaving the RAF one year after the end of the war, he went to St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, and his path was set to follow the two true loves of his life — history and religion. While at Cambridge, he edited the weekly Varsity newspaper, and coxed the college eight. After three years at Cambridge, Fred went to Cuddesdon for two years to prepare for ordination. He was ordained in York Minster by Archbishop Cyril Garbutt, and his first appointment was as curate of Helmsley on the North Yorkshire moors.
Fred was then awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study at Columbia University, New York, where he gained another Master’s degree — one of three — and a doctorate, all from different universities.
On his return to the UK, he became Vice-Principal of the RAF Chaplains’ School, then near Cheltenham, and from there, for six months, Chaplain of Princess Alexandra’s RAF Hospital, Wroughton.
Leaving the RAF as Wing Commander, he was appointed Principal Lecturer in History at St Luke’s Teacher Training College in Exeter. Fred initially planned to stay for five years, but ended up staying for 23, and another year when Exeter University took over the college. He saw St Luke’s grow from 20 staff and 250 students to 120 staff and 1300 students.
Fred was also a great supporter of the athletic achievements of the students at St Luke’s, and took great pride in their success on the rugby field, where a number of former students represented the Home Nations —enough to have fielded a full XV in one year. He witnessed the winning of the Middlesex Sevens, and the centenary celebration of the St Luke’s Rugby Club against an international XV.
On his retirement from St Luke’s, he was Priest-in-Charge of St Saviour’s, Ashford Road, Swindon, until 1984. Never officially retiring for some years, he continued to serve the parish churches of Swindon New Town, as well as others locally.
An accomplished author, Fred had numerous history books published, and continued to accumulate material for further books on his favourite subject, the history and influence of the local churches in and around Swindon.
Over recent months, his health began to deteriorate, and he moved to the Fitzwarren House Nursing Home. There he celebrated his 90th birthday, joined by members of his family. Fred was a lifelong bachelor, and is survived by his brother Peter and sisters Mary and Betty.
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