Frederick Joseph Ricketts grew up in East End London. His early musical training was on the piano and organ. Orphaned at 14, he heard street musicians and bands and decided joining an army band would be best for his future.
In 1895 Ricketts was enlisted as a Band Boy in the Royal Irish Regiment. A good cornet player, he was put into the regimental band. In his free time, he learned all the other band instruments and in 1903, was recommended for entry into the Student Bandmaster Course at the Royal Military School of Music. He graduated in 1906 and stayed on as chapel organist and assistant to the Director of Music. Ricketts became Bandmaster to the Band of the 2nd Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1908. The colonel asked him to write a new march for the Argylls, and Ricketts wrote "The Thin Red Line", not published until 1925.
Ricketts wanted to compose music but being engaged in commercial activities was not accepted for officers of Ricketts's rank, so he composed and published under the pen name Kenneth J. Alford.
In 1927 Ricketts was commissioned a lieutenant in the Royal Marines Band Service. In 1930, he was posted to the Band of the Plymouth Division, Royal Marines, the principal band of the Royal Marines. Under his direction, the band became world-famous and before and during World War II made a series of 78 RPM recordings of Alford marches, since reissued in LP and CD formats. Ricketts retired from the Royal Marines in 1944 because of ill health and died the following year. While best known for his marches often compared to those of John Philip Sousa, he wrote many other pieces. His championing of the saxophone played a part in getting the instrument accepted in military bands. He is also credited with the first arrangements for bagpipes with military band.