Life story by Yota Dimitriadi
Thomas Boswall BEACH was born in Brompton, London, on 28 May 1866, the eldest son of Sophia Jemima (née WATSON) and the Rev. Canon William Robert BEACH, Chaplain to the Forces. Both his paternal and maternal grandfather were named ‘Thomas’ and he was also given the middle name of his maternal grandfather, Dr Thomas Boswall WATSON, a Scottish physician and amateur artist, the first of his family to move to Macao. His paternal grandfather, Thomas BEACH, Mayor of Bridport and pharmacist, took over from Dr Giles Lawrence Roberts to make and sell ‘Poor Man’s Friend’, a globally popular ointment used for gout, wounds, cuts, bruises, eczema, and minor skin infections. The pharmacy operated under the name of Edgar Beach until 1946.
Thomas’s great-grand uncle was Thomas BEACH (1738-1806), the well-known portrait painter.
Thomas grew up in a bustling family of seven children, with two sisters and five brothers. His brother, William Henry BEACH (1871 – 22 July 1952), known as Bill BEACH, became a Major-General and played a role in the campaign in Mesopotamia 1915 to 1918. His other brothers were John , Alderman James BEACH, Thomas Coke BEACH (1837-1863), chemist and pharmacist. His brother Dr Fletcher BEACH MB Lond, MRCS, LSA, FRCP, (1845-18 August 1929) specialised in supporting children and young people with learning disabilities. Fletcher finished his career at the Cane Hill Mental Hospital at Coulsdon. He died two weeks after his wife in August 1929. Thomas’s two sisters were Mary Ursula Beach (Mar 1868-1904) and Elise Sophia Beach (Dec 1864-1954), the watercolour artist who lived and died in Reading. She is buried in the Henley Road Cemetery, Reading.
Thomas was educated at Bloxham School (1880–1884) and the school records show that he lived in Ailsa House, 181 King’s Road, Reading. This was the family home and at some point in his adult life towards the end of his military career he moved in, possibly after retirement and he and his sister Elise lived until the end of their lives.
In 1921 we find him living with at King’s Road with his 79 year old mother, his sister Elise (56 years) and his brother Thomas (55 years- retired Army Medical Science Officer). The cook, Jane Budden (61 years) had been with the family for years and even when Thomas’s father was alive. A housemaid, Emma Barley (48 years) is also listed in the census.
In 1884 Thomas won the prestigious Warneford Scholarship, an award intended to provide financial support to medical students attending King’s College London. A condition for receiving the award was that students also had to attend a course of lectures in divinity at the college. He moved to London and in the 1891 census we find him as a visitor in Grays Inn Lane (now Road) to James K. Arthur and described as a Wesleyan Divinity student.
In King’s College Hospital Thomas studied under the pioneering surgeon Joseph Lister and graduated with the M.R.C.S. and L.R.C.P. in 1889.
For the 1927 Lister Centenary Exhibition at the Wellcome Museum, Colonel Beach donated a letter from Lister to him concerning the best form of ligature for the treatment of popliteal aneurysm, with enclosures of knotted string and catgut. https://archive.org/details/B-001-000-135/page/n399/mode/2up?q=letter
On graduation he was appointed a house physician at King’s College Hospital and in 1891 he entered the Army as surgeon, competing for entrance into the Royal Victoria Military Hospital at Netley and passing first on the list. There he gained the Herbert Prize allotted to the best performing student of the term and the Montefiore Medal and Prize for Military Surgery. In 1891 he was promoted as captain.
His first tour of foreign service was to India, and, after its end, he served in the South African War in 1899-1902, when he took part in the advance on Kimberley, including the actions at Belmont, Enslin, Modder River, and Magersfontein. He was in operations in the Orange River Colony, including actions at Paardeberg, Poplar Grove, Driefontein, Vet River, and Zand River, In the Transvaal, he was involved in actions at Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Diamond Hill and in Cape Colony. Some of the letters he sent to his family during the Boer War are in the Wellcome Trust and give rare insights to his life at the time.
The News and Gazette of the RAMC, the RADC and QAIMNS, No. 12, Vol. IX, 1938, contains Colonel Beach’s resumé of his Boer War diary and can also be found in the Wellcome Collection.
He was mentioned in dispatches in 1901, received the Queen’s medal with seven clasps and the King’s medal with two clasps, and was promoted major. He became Lieutenant-Colonel in 1912 and Colonel in 1915. His obituary mentions that ill health, contracted in India, prevented his attaining General’s rank.
The Great War of 1914-18 found Beach serving in the Middle East. He was mentioned in dispatches in 1916 and was awarded the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George (CMG) in the same year. He received the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1918, after serving as Assistant Director of Medical Services (A.D.M.S.) at Alexandria. The Museum of Military Medicine hosts 2 diaries of his service in Egypt as ADMS in the Alexandria District. He went on half-pay in August 1919 and retired four months later.
A number of files were donated to the Wellcome Trust which enable us to find out more about the life and career of Colonel Beach. For instance, the following are photographs from an album of photographs taken by Thomas of the funeral procession of King Edward VII in 1910. The album can be viewed online, part of the Royal Army Medical Corps Muniments Collection, Wellcome Collection.
While he was unable to attend his brother’s Bill wedding in 1915 in India, the presents the newly weds received were listed on the news with Thomas offering a cheque and his sister silver fish carvers (Lady’s Pictorial – Saturday 20 March 1915).
His obituary mentions that:
“Colonel Beach took an active interest in many organisations and institutions in the town of Reading, who found in him a generous subscriber. He was closely identified with the work of the Royal Berkshire Hospital and was an honorary member of the Reading Pathological Society. He was a warm supporter of the Berkshire Cricket Club stud. of the Reading Athletic Club. For more than 20 years he was associated with the work of St. John’s Church, Reading. The newspaper reported that he went through life contributing to the happiness of others, largely by his urbanity and humour. He was a good friend and companion. His recreations included golf and shooting.
Thomas Beach was one of those who went through life contributing to the happiness of others, largely by his urbanity and humour, a good friend and companion, he has left a host of friends, fortunate in having served with one of his mental and professional calibre. He never married. “
He died on Thursday 3 April at the family home King’s Road, Reading. His funeral on Monday was private. A service was held at St. John’s Church. By request there were no flowers or mourning. By the time of his death he had been a member of the British Medical Association for fifty years.
Division 70, Row B, Plot 4