[1] Frederick Henry Attride was born on 2 April 1848,[2] at Park Road in Peckham.

His parents were Henry and Sarah Attride (nee Phillips), and Frederick was the second child of ten children.

His father Henry was a committee member of the Hanover Cricket Club for whom Frederick played.

However, three years later he was asked to tender his resignation because he made a false statement to the bank about loans that he had taken out.

[13] In November of that year, he took on the license of the Albion Hotel in Bank Street, Belfast, Victoria (now known as Port Fairy) in the person of Ralph Frederick Osborne.

He traveled widely in Australia and spent time in the pastoral areas of Queensland where he had a first-hand knowledge of the Warrego River, Walloon and Banana on the Dawson River, Westwood and Rockhampton in central Queensland and Eton and Bowen further north.

He reinvented himself as Professor Sydney Frederick Galvayne,[21] the Australian Horse Tamer.

He is also known for "Galvayning", a horse-taming method he invented in which the horse's head was tied to its tail causing it to spin around until it quieted down.

[28][29] On the outbreak of the Second Boer War in 1899, Frederick, using the name Sydney Galvayne, volunteered for active service.

He left for South Africa to serve in the Army Remount Service as a farrier and was appointed an honorary lieutenant and horse breaker.

[30] He was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with four clasps (Cape Colony, Orange Free State, Transvaal, and Natal).

[36] This book also contained a Practical Treatise on Training Ponies and Playing Polo, by his son Fred.