Frederick Yeomans was born in the north London town of Enfield, England, in about 1886. One of four children to Henry Yeomans and Hannah Wright, he worked as an estate agent prior to deciding to relocate to Perth. He arrived in Fremantle in the second half of 1911 and soon found employment as a clerk while living in Guildford.
The local football season kicked-off in April 1912 and Frederick Yeomans threw his hat in with the Austral club, earning praise on debut before keeping goal for the next three seasons. In 1915 he moved to Thistle where he played his part in the club taking out the Division One championship along with the Charity Cup and the Wanderers Cup.
The season had not ended when Frederick Yeomans answered the call by enlisting as a Private with the 18th Depot Company in late July 1915. But before heading to Europe he transferred to what would become the 6th Field Artillery Brigade and, on the first day of October, married dressmaker Irma Neumann in Leederville. On deployment to France, Frederick Yeomans probably served in the trenches at Armentieres. Promoted to Temporary Corporal in March 1916, he was “Reverted to Driver through inefficiency” three months later and by September had been convicted of being absent without leave, for which he was shackled in irons for seven days.
In January 1917 Frederick Yeomans was assigned to a new unit after the 6th Field Artillery Brigade was disbanded as part of Australian Imperial Forces re-organisation of artillery assets. Remustered as a Gunner, he would have been involved in the Battles of Bullecourt in which some 10,000 Australians were listed as killed, missing or wounded. Frederick Yeomans was admitted “to hospital sick” in May 1918. The following month he was invalided to Frensham Hill Military Hospital near Farnham, England, and later spent four weeks at the 3rd Auxiliary Hospital suffering influenza.
He remained in England until the end of the war and returned to Australia in February 1919. Frederick Yeomans wasted no time getting back on the football field. “Yeomans… saving his team from defeat time after time. He saved some remarkable shots,” reported the West Australian newspaper of 21 May, 1919, of his heroics. A trio of seasons with Northern Casuals were highlighted by a Challenge Cup and Shield win before he hung up his gloves at the end of 1922. By this time, Frederick Yeomans was living in Cottesloe with his wife and their young family.
Frederick Yeomans was aged about 80 when he passed away in Cottesloe on 21 December, 1966.