Remembering William Robert Clive Beasley
Inside this week’s edition, you will find the photographs and names of 40 servicemen from Orange killed in action while serving in the armed forces during wartime. The soldiers’ photos also adorn banners erected along Summer Street as part of an Orange City Council-initiated campaign to remember the sacrifice of our local servicemen.
Among these names is that of William Robert Clive Beasley.
Born in Lucknow in 1894, William was the second of seven children born to Edwin and Letitia Beasley.
His uncle, William Edwin Agland, was an alderman and mayor of East Orange in 1910.
William was one of the first to enlist when war broke out in 1914, and sadly, one of the first of the men from Orange to be killed in the conflict.
William enlisted in Sydney on August 20, 1914, barely a week after voluntary recruitment commenced.
He left in October 1914, to the Mena training camp in Egypt. Eventually joining the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force at Alexandria in April 1915, he was part of the first contingent of troops to land at Gallipoli on April 25.
William’s battalion advanced about two kilometres inland to a position near Courtney’s Post. When roll call was held on Thursday, April 29, William was not present and no one had seen him.
A court of inquiry held on March 24, 1916, found that William had been killed in action near Courtney’s Post, Gallipoli, on May 2, 1915, just one week before his 21st birthday.
William has no known grave, however, he is commemorated on Panel 17 of the Lone Pine Memorial at Gallipoli in Turkey with others who have no known grave.
While William’s name now adorns one of the memorial banners in Summer Street, it’s not the only place in Orange where his name has been etched.
In 1919, Mr Arnold Caldwell, the principal of East Orange Public School, arranged the planting of a memorial avenue in Newman Park, adjacent to the school. The 16 trees, representing 16 former students who were killed in action or died of wounds during the war, were planted by a group of returned soldiers.
William is represented by one of these trees, as a former student of East Orange Public School.
In the early years after the planting of this memorial avenue, vandals allegedly destroyed the nameplates attached to each tree, which signified who it was planted for. It was even considered at one point that Council remove the avenue, however strong protest by the Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) saved the trees.
In August 1978, a memorial plaque attached to a large basalt stone was donated by the Orange RSL sub-branch and Orange City Council to replace the plaques. It is inscribed with the names of the 16 former students who gave their lives for their country: Herbert Henry Argall, Preston Edwin Argall, William Robert Clive Beasley, Oswald Cecil Jeffrey Baylis, Thomas Meynell Curtayne, William Joseph Coppock, Walter Thomas Cornish, Harold William Corkett, Arthur James Dein, John Arthur 'Jack' Earls, Edwin Hercules Fardell, Robert Clyde Jones, George Edward John Seers, Ernest Edward Tandy, Hector Edward Williams, and William Alexander Woods.
When news of William’s death reached home, the Orange Leader reported the following on Wednesday, May 26, 1916:
“Once again, we have to add to the list of illustrious dead from Orange. This time the names of Private William Robert Clive Beasley and Private Arthur Edward Davis occupy two lines in the scroll of honour as having given up their lives for their country. There had always been a doubt as to the fate of these two lads, who were reported missing early in the campaign, and the best their relatives could hope for was that they had been taken prisoners by the Turks. With that thought always present, the mothers of both lads had ever a ray of sunshine in their dark hour of sorrow, which had the effect of bearing them up with the hope of once more clasping them to their breasts. Alas, it was not to be, as Saturday’s casualty list brought news of their deaths on the field of action. We, who know them, are satisfied that they died with their faces to the foe, fighting grim earnestness to the last.
“They rose, responsive to their country’s call. And gave to their life, their best, their all.”
The article goes on to name the parents and families of each soldier, ending with a patriotic plea for others to join the cause they gave their lives for.
“(They) died as British soldiers only can die, fighting for that old rag, the Union Jack, which is the flag of the free, the flag of the brave, and the king of all the flags that fly beneath the sun. We lay a flower on each of their graves and ask those men of Orange who are eligible and are without encumbrance to step out and fill the gaps.”
Orange’s ANZAC dawn service will be held at Robertson Park at 6am, on April 25.