Fred Ewen’s father died when he was an infant, and he was educated at the Manchester Warehousemen and Clerks’ Orphan School in Cheadle Hulme, where he was a boarder. Despite being brought up in a lacrosse “hot-bed”, he moved to London when aged 17, to accept a post as an assistant clerk at the War Office in 1914. Whilst he probably played lacrosse at school, he joined the Purley club upon moving south, and went on to become captain of The South. He also won representative honours with London and the London Counties, and played in goal for them in the 1929 County Championship final against Lancashire at Manchester. Ewen was still working for the War Office at the outbreak of World War II, and after the hostilities ended, continued playing in goal for Purley, and was appointed captain of their “A” team in 1952.
Great Britain