George Frederick, known always as Fred Line, was described by his nephew George Henry Line as a "cocky little sod". Nevertheless he achieved more than any other of his siblings. Having joined the army as a drummer boy he worked his way up through the ranks to reach the status of Major.

Fred was born in the parish of St George the Martyr in South London on 5th November 1880. He left school at the age of 12 to become a shop boy and then enlisted into the army on 20th May 1895 as a drummer boy in the Worcestershire Regiment at the age of 14.  On the 20th January 1900 he joined the Army Pay corps where he served until suffering a stroke in 1943. Apart from military service in the UK, Fred also served in Malta, Bermuda, Egypt and Singapore as well as France in both world wars. He held every rank between lance-corporal and major during his career. In the First World War he was mentioned in despatches for bringing a wounded soldier back to the trenches under enemy fire. It is also understood he put down a mutiny (one of many during the 1st War but vehemently denied by the British Government to this day) by standing on his pay chest and threatening to shoot any of the mutineers who tried to steal it.

Fred married Elizabeth Blanch Acklam on the 20th April 1903 at Beverley in Yorkshire. It was here that he was buried in July 1950 At St Mary`s Church Cemetery. Curiously it is not known if he had any children.

One of the last photographs of Fred, probably taken during the late 1940s, seen with brother Thomas William on the beach at Herne Bay in Kent. It is almost certain the two brothers were staying with their brother Edward who lived at Mickleburgh Hill in the town. Ironically David George Line, to whom Edward and Fred were great-uncles, moved into a nearby house in the same road after his second marriage in 1975 but not knowing at the time that there was any family connection.