Frederick William Shotton, 8 October 1906 - 21 July 1990

Frederick William Shotton was born on 8 October 1906 at Exhall, Coventry, the son of Fredrick John Shotton and Ada Shotton, well known figures on both the industrial and political scene in Coventry. In 1905 his father had founded the Albion Drop Forging Company at Holbrooks, north Coventry, a company that had a remarkable record for making car components and for the manufacture of munitions during two World Wars, a record of which Fred Shotton was justly proud. The family were staunch Liberals, and his father, though in his early days a socialist, was President of the Coventry Liberal Society, for four years a member of the Coventry City Council and for many years a Justice of the Peace in the city. In 1930 Fred married Alice Louise Linnett at St Paul’s Church, Foleshill, Coventry with whom he shared a common interest in natural history. Alice was the only daughter of John and Alice Linnett who kept a drapers shop in Smithford Street, Coventry. Later John Linnett opened a ribbon making factory on Foleshill Road, Coventry with which Alice Shotton retained an interest well into the post-war years. They had two daughters, Anne Elizabeth and Margaret Alice, who are both married with sons and daughters of their own. Alice Shotton died in 1979. Fred Shotton remarried in 1983 to Lucille Bailey of Portland, Oregon, who provided him with tender loving care during the last years of his life when gradually failing health kept him from his field work and to a greater and greater extent confined him to home. He died on 21 July 1990. Lucille survives him and still lives in their house in Dorridge near Solihull.