Captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

Frank Reginald Beck, (3 May 1861 – 12 August 1915) was a

land agent Land agent may be used in at least three different contexts. Traditionally, a land agent was a managerial employee who conducted the business affairs of a large estate (house), landed estate for a member of the landed gentry, supervising the farmi ...

to the British royal family. He helped to form a volunteer

company A company, abbreviated as co., is a Legal personality, legal entity representing an association of people, whether Natural person, natural, Legal person, legal or a mixture of both, with a specific objective. Company members share a common p ...

comprising members of the royal staff. Under his leadership this unit fought in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915. Following the

landings at Suvla Bay The landing at Suvla Bay was an amphibious warfare, amphibious landing made at Suvla on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of the Gallipoli peninsula in the Ottoman Empire as part of the Battle of Sari Bair, August Offensive, the final United Kingdo ...

, as part of the August Offensive, Beck and many of his men went missing, presumed killed.

Early life and career

Born in

Oxwick Oxwick is a hamlet in the English county of Norfolk. It lies close to the source of the River Wensum and lies one mile south of the village of Colkirk Colkirk is a village (population 2001-547) situated about two miles south of Fakenham in th ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

, Beck was the son of Edmund Beck, land agent to the British royal family at

Sandringham Sandringham can refer to: Places * Sandringham, New South Wales, Australia * Sandringham, Queensland, Australia * Sandringham, Victoria, Australia **Sandringham railway line **Sandringham railway station **Electoral district of Sandringham * Sand ...

. Educated at

Norfolk County School Watts Naval School was originally the Norfolk County School, a boarding school set up to serve the educational needs of the 'sons of farmers and artisans'. The school was later operated by Dr Barnardo's until closure in 1953. History Norfolk C ...

North Elmham North Elmham is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk. It covers an area of and had a population of 1,428 in 624 households at the 2001 census, including Gateley and increasing slightly to 1,433 at the 2011 Census. For ...

, he inherited his father's position on the King's estate, serving as Land Agent at Sandringham to

Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria an ...

when

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

, 1891–1901, and when King, 1901–10; and to

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Que ...

from 1910 until the First World War. He was appointed a

Member of the Royal Victorian Order The Royal Victorian Order (french: Ordre royal de Victoria) is a dynastic order of knighthood established in 1896 by Queen Victoria. It recognises distinguished personal service to the British monarch, Canadian monarch, Australian monarch, or ...

(4th Class) in 1901, and created a Knight of the Order of St Olav by the

King of Norway The Norwegian monarch is the head of state of Norway, which is a constitutional and hereditary monarchy with a parliamentary system. The Norwegian monarchy can trace its line back to the reign of Harald Fairhair and the previous petty kingdoms ...

in 1906. Beck was instrumental in the formation of the Sandringham Company of Volunteers ("E" Company, 5th Battalion

Norfolk Regiment The Royal Norfolk Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army until 1959. Its predecessor regiment was raised in 1685 as Henry Cornwall's Regiment of Foot. In 1751, it was numbered like most other British Army regiments and named ...

Territorial Force The Territorial Force was a part-time volunteer component of the British Army, created in 1908 to augment British land forces without resorting to conscription. The new organisation consolidated the 19th-century Volunteer Force and yeomanry i ...

), which included grooms, gardeners, farm labourers and household staff from the King's estates. Beck raised the company as a

Volunteer Force The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement throughout the British Empire in 1859. Originally highly autonomous, the units of volunteers became increasingly integrated ...

unit in 1906.

War service and death

Despite his age and the fact

told him not to go, Beck volunteered for foreign service after the outbreak of war and served with the

Mediterranean Expeditionary Force The Mediterranean Expeditionary Force (MEF) was the part of the British Army during World War I that commanded all Allied forces at Gallipoli and Salonika. It was formed in March 1915, under the command of General Sir Ian Hamilton, at the beginn ...

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

, leading his company during the attack on Anafarta on 12 August 1915. He fought alongside his two nephews, Arthur Evelyn and Albert Edward Alexander Beck, who were both awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

. On that day, a large part of the Norfolks, including Beck and many of the Sandringham men, were

missing in action Missing in action (MIA) is a casualty classification assigned to combatants, military chaplains, combat medics, and prisoners of war who are reported missing during wartime or ceasefire. They may have been killed, wounded, captured, ex ...

. For several years, nothing was known of their fate, and a legend grew that the battalion had vanished into a mysterious cloud.

Queen Alexandra Alexandra of Denmark (Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia; 1 December 1844 – 20 November 1925) was Queen of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Empress of India, from 22 January 1901 to 6 May 1910 as the wife of King ...

King Edward VII Edward VII (Albert Edward; 9 November 1841 – 6 May 1910) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperor of India, from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910. The second child and eldest son of Queen Victoria a ...

's widow, took a particular interest in establishing what had happened to the men, many of whom had been her employees. After the 1918

Armistice of Mudros Concluded on 30 October 1918 and taking effect at noon the next day, the Armistice of Mudros ( tr, Mondros Mütarekesi) ended hostilities in the Middle Eastern theatre between the Ottoman Empire and the Allies of World War I. It was signed by th ...

, 180 bodies were found "scattered over an area of about one square mile, at a distance of at least 800 yards behind the Turkish front line." This information was kept from Queen Alexandra as it was felt she would be too distressed at the news. Beck's body was not identified. Beck's watch, given to him in 1915 by Sir Dighton Probyn, was bought from a Turkish officer after the war. It was presented to his heirs in 1922 and remains in the family's possession.

Memorials

St Peter and St Paul, West Newton, Norfolk - Window - geograph

Beck is commemorated on the

Helles Memorial The Helles Memorial is a Commonwealth War Graves Commission war memorial near Sedd el Bahr, in Turkey, on the headland at the tip of the Gallipoli peninsula overlooking the Dardanelles. It includes an obelisk which is over high. The memorial ...

, with other servicemen with no known grave. There is a brass plaque in the Church of St Mary Magdalene,

and a stained glass window (by

Karl Parsons Karl Bergemann Parsons (23 January 1884 – 30 September 1934) was a British stained glass artist associated with the Arts and Crafts movement. Early life, 1884 – 1898 Parsons was born in Peckham in south London on 23 January 1884, the 12t ...

) in the Church of St Peter and St Paul, West Newton. Beck and 18 other men from the company who died at Suvla Bay are commemorated on the Sandringham war memorial cross and at West Newton parish church.

Film portrayal

In 1999, a film was made, entitled ''

All the King's Men ''All the King's Men'' is a 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren. The novel tells the story of charismatic populist governor Willie Stark and his political machinations in the Depression-era Deep South. It was inspired by the real-life story of U.S ...

'', depicting the formation of the Sandringham company, its fate, and Beck's role in this. Beck was portrayed by

David Jason Sir David John White (born 2 February 1940), known professionally by his stage name David Jason, is an English actor. He is best known for his roles as Derek "Del Boy" Trotter in the BBC sitcom ''Only Fools and Horses'', Detective Inspector J ...

Family

Beck married Mary Plumpton Wilson in 1891 and had five daughters. His only son died in infancy.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Beck, Frank 1861 births 1915 deaths 19th-century English people 20th-century English people British Army personnel of World War I British military personnel killed in World War I Members of the Royal Victorian Order Military personnel from Norfolk Missing in action of World War I Missing person cases in Turkey People educated at Watts Naval School People from Breckland District People from Sandringham, Norfolk Royal Norfolk Regiment officers