He was educated at Mount Florida Primary School (1917-1921) and Rutherglen Academy, after which he began an apprenticeship with Arthur & Co., drapery wholesalers, where his father worked. Fred., however, decided to pursue a different career and entered Glasgow University, from which he graduated M.A. with 2nd Class Honours. Proceeding to Jordanhill Training College for a year's teacher training, he then became a teacher of English at Hyndland Secondary School. During the early part of the Second World War, he was evacuated, along with a group of school children from Glasgow, to Cally House, near Gatehouse-of-Fleet in Galloway. When called up, he entered the Royal Navy reaching the rank of Lieutenant on board a minesweeper. While engaged in clearing the English Channel in preparation for the Normany landings, he was killed when his ship was hit by a mine on 10 July 1944.

Fred was married to Mary W. Fleming who was later killed by terrorists in Cyprus, where she was working for the Red Cross. They had no children.

Poems by Fred. W. Holton