BECK, Captain William Thomas DSO MiD

Captain William Thomas Beck DSO, MiD

New Zealand & Australian Division HQ (Ordnance)

by Robert Simpson

15/12 Captain William Thomas Beck DSO

New Zealand Army Ordnance Corps

Captain William Thomas Beck and son Driver 43566 Thomas Nathan Beck

William Thomas Beck was born at Castlemaine, Victoria on 7^th May 1866 to Richard and Sarah Beck. Richard was born in Market Bosworth, Leicester, England and left for Australia in 1851. Sarah Beck (nee Taylor) was born 15^th June 1844 Cheapside, Burnley, England and they married on 15^th November 1862 in Congregational Parsonage Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia.

They all migrated to New Zealand when William was a young child and lived at Kanieri, Hokitaka, on the west coast of the South Island. Richard was a butcher and Sarah was appointed in 1895 as Wellington’s first Full-time Police Matron in New Zealand, stationed at Wellington, Lambton Quay Headquarters Station; dealing with all women prisoners. Police Matron Sarah Beck was also involved in enforcing the first Infant Life Protection Act in New Zealand.

William had 2 brothers and 1 sister. He married Edith Chick (born 28^th February 1874 at “Chick Hotel”, Port Chalmers, New Zealand) at Holy Trinity Church 8^th June 1896, Port Chalmers. They had 3 children; Thomas Nathan born 1^st January 1897, Olive Ivy born 10^th March 1903 and Ellen Edith born 8^th September 1895.

In 1896, he was a torpedoman in the Torpedoman Corps at Deborah Bay, Dunedin.

In the Auckland Military District, under Administrative Staff he was listed as Assistant Director of Equipment and Ordnance Stores on 24^th December 1903 at the rank of Lieutenant (temp. Hon. Captain).

On his Attestation paper, dated 21^st August 1914, it is noted that 15/12 Beck, William Thomas of Divisional Headquarters had a calling of Soldier and employer as New Zealand Government, with and address of Defense Department Auckland and that he belonged to the NZ Staff Corps and he has signed as a Captain, although at the time it was an honorary rank. He was with the 1^st NZEF (New Zealand Expeditionary Force) Auckland Regiment and his Terms of Service were stated as being for the “period of war”. His qualification was with the Ordnance Department as the Deputy Assistant Director of Ordnance Services (D.A.D.O.S.) for the N.Z. and A. Division.

He embarked on Transport ship HMNZT 3 “Maunganui” at Wellington on 16^th October 1914 as one of 38 officers and 528 men on the ship. 204 horses were also onboard. He is recorded as being with the Army Ordnance Corps, attached to the New Zealand Staff Corps. They arrived at Suez, Egypt on 3^rd December 1914. Beck was the senior Ordnance Officer in the staff of Major General Godley; Commander of the NZ and Australian Division which included the Australian 4th Brigade AIF. He was promoted to Captain on 14^th January 1915 at Dardanelles.

Captain William Beck got into the first boat to land at Gallipoli with the Australian and New Zealand Division. He was also the first New Zealander to land with a New Zealand unit as an Ordnance Staff Officer. About 9am Staff Officers of the NZ & A Division were told to get in the boats. Lieutenant-Colonel Fenwick, Colonels’ Braithwaite, Chaytor and Mandris, Major Hughes and Captain Beck got into the first boat. They were hampered by their own kit: – overcoat, revolver, glasses, map, case, haversack, 3 days rations, firewood, Red Cross satchel and water bottle. Fenwick said “It was a certainty that we would drown if we sank”. A very fat rosy midshipman in charge of a steam picket boat came along and took their string of boats in tow. Their boat grounded about 50 feet from the shore and they hopped out. Fenwick fell into a hole up to his neck. He could hardly struggle ashore and when he did the first thing he saw was Beck sitting on a stone, roaring with laughter at them. Captain Beck was the first New Zealander of Godley’s force to get onto Gallipoli. It seems mildly ironic that in this first major operation, the first New Zealander to land was the Ordnance Staff Officer of the Division. A friend of his is quoted as saying when he arrived at the beach on the morning of 25^th April 1915 he saw Beck approaching, smiling. A part of Anzac Cove was named after him, Beck’s Bluff.

1915. Captain Beck and Lieutenant Lawless- (photo at Auckland War Memorial Museum).

Lieutenant Colonel George Johnston, the CRA of the NZ and Australian Artillery; wrote in his diary on 15^th October 1915, “Today, I received a cake from Beck, formerly a gunner in the RNZA, now commissioned in the Ordnance Depot. He sent it from Alexandria. It was very decent of him, as I don’t know him very well”.

1915. Captain W Beck DSO (photo at Auckland War Memorial Museum).

He was transferred to duty at Alexandria on 1^st August 1915 and invalided back to New Zealand from Suez on 20th November 1915 on the ship “Tahiti” and discharged on 19 February 1916 from the NZEF to the NZ Army. Beck was appointed Assistant Director of Equipment and Ordnance Stores, Auckland Military District in 1917.

The photo at the top is of him with his son Thomas Nathan Beck, both in uniform. Thomas was a Driver in the New Zealand Army Service Corps during WW1. He enlisted in 1917 and embarked on the Waitemata on 14^th July 1917 for England. There is also a photo of the whole family. After resigning in March 1918, William took up employment with the Public Works Department at Apia in Samoa, before retiring in 1922. In the 1928 electoral roll, he is listed as P.W.D Ngahanranga at Wellington as a soldier. The same details are in the 1935 roll. He went through divorce proceedings with his wife in 1936-7. He then remarried, to Isabel Annie Murray in 1937. In the 1946 electoral roll, they were both living at 21 Hobson Crescent Wellington, with William a retired soldier and Annie doing home duties.

Thomas Nathan Beck.

William Beck died on 15^th January 1947 in Wellington. at 82 years old and is buried at Karori Cemetery, Wellington NZ in Area 11, Block B, Row 28, Number 30, in the soldiers’ section. Edith died 8^th September 1959 in Dunedin.

A photo of his family.

Isobel moved to Canterbury sometime after his death and was found there in the 1963 and 1972 electoral rolls. She passed away in 1977 in Christchurch NZ. Ellen Edith Beck married in 1939 and passed away in 1995 in Christchurch. Olive Ivy Beck married and passed away in 1985 in Dunedin. Thomas Nathan Beck worked as an engineer after the war, was married twice, moved to Australia (living in NSW) and died in Artarmon, Sydney NSW in 1967.

William’s religion was noted as Church of England.

Period of Service was from 21^st August 1914 (at 48 years old) to 19^th February 1916.

Theatre of operation – Egyptian and Balkan (1915 Gallipoli)

Decorations – Distinguished Service Order

• 1915 Star

• British War Medal

• Victory Medal with Mention in Despatches

• Gallipoli Medal (unofficial)

Highest Rank in the NZEF – Captain 14^th June 1915 and in the NZ Army Ordnance Corps.

First appointment in NZEF – Honorary Captain 5^th August 1914

Appointed DADOS NZ & A Division 19 February 1916

He was Mentioned in Despatches by Sir Ian Hamilton, the Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Expeditionary Force on 26^th August 1915 and was to be a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order, recorded in the London Gazette 8^th November 1915, for Distinguished service in the field during operations in the Dardanelles.

Captain William Thomas Beck and son Driver 43566 Thomas Nathan Beck

ANZAC Biographies

On our website you will find the biographical details of ANZAC (as well as British) servicemen & women

whose medals or other memorabilia form part of the collection belonging to the

Maryborough Military & Colonial Museum,

Maryborough, Queensland, Australia.

Array