The following brief information about James Beeton is taken from ‘Their Name Liveth for Evermore: The Great War Roll of Honour for Leicestershire and Rutland’ by Michael R P Doyle.
JR Beeton was a telegraphist with the Royal Naval Volunteer Force, serving on HMS Pembroke*. The son of Robert William and Alice May Beeton, he was 20 when he died on 12th February 1917.
*Searching on the Internet for information, it seems HMS Pembroke was the name given to a number of shore barracks – at Chatham, Harwich and Forth. A number of ships were renamed Pembroke while serving as base and depot ships for the establishment.
We recently received the following information about JR Beeton, from his nephew, Robert Fairbrother, who lives in Croxton Kerrial. He also writes about his elder brother, James, who died in World War II and is named on the WWII memorials. (Click here to read more about James Fairbrother.)
I am Robert George Fairbrother, aged 83, and would like to put on paper what bit I know about my uncle James Beeton who died 10 years before I was born. He was the eldest son of Robert and Alice Beeton who were married in the 1890′s (dates and ages are a bit vague). His father, my grandfather, was the son of the village (Waltham) carpenter. I believe also named Robert.
My grandmother came from near Ipswich in Suffolk, and during her married life became the local Doctor’s midwife, cum dogsbody, at births. Whether she received any rembursements or just thanks I wouldn’t know.
There were three children; James, Irene (my Mum) and Herbert. Both boys were sailors; James born c.1897 and Herbert in 1902. James died of pneumonia whilst serving on an armed trawler, HMS Haldon, in 1917 as a telegraphist. Herbert, the youngest, served in the China Seas on submarines and left the navy around 1932, but was on the Naval Reserve and recalled in 1938 to serve on the West Scottish Coast stationed at Oban.
Herbert finally married a Scotch lass working for the Admiralty and, after working for the post office installing automatic exchanges for many years, retired with his wife Ann to a croft near Inverness.
My Mum, Irene Alice Beeton, was my grandma’s only daughter – born in December 1900. She met my Dad whilst working in Melton Mowbray as a Secretary, and they married in 1921. Dad – William Henry Fairbrother – was born 1898 and served in the 5th Leicesters in France during World War I. He was a company runner and was mentioned in the London Dispatches. He was wounded in the foot and lay three days in a shell hole.
He came to live in waltham after getting married, playing football for Melton Albion and Waltham. He spent the rest of his life working for an Iron ore company at Sproxton, and was taken ill and died of pneumonia in 1934. My Mum had four children by her first marriage; Rita born 1921, Jim 1922, me 1927 and Lois 1932.
Jim joined the Navy in 1937 at 15, training at Shotley in Suffolk. After serving a short time on a cruiser he was transferred to HMS Royal Oak cruising off the Norweigen coast after, I believe, taking the Norweigen royal family back to Norway before the war. The Royal Oak was left in Scapa Flow to defend the Naval Harbour from air attack because she was considered too slow to keep up with the North Atlantic Fleet.
I shall never forget 14th October 1939. I was listening to the one o’clock news on the wireless. My Mum was preparing dinner in the kitchen when the news came over that the Royal Oak had been sunk by a German U-boat. We were absolutely dumb struck. The war had struck us the cruelest blow it could. My brother was only 17yrs 3months of age.
His rating was ‘Boy Seaman 1st Class, P/JX159190′. And not A.B., which is on the memorial in Waltham Church. This galls both my younger sister Lois and me as no-one seems to be interested in getting the wording altered. I did ask a local British Legion man some time ago but he didn’t think the Legion would do anything. I also approached the Waltham Vicar, but whether the matter was taken up with anyone, I don’t know. I feel that if it was General Montgomery, and he was down as Corporal Montgomery, it would be altered post-haste – regardless of cost.
For prosperity things like this should be kept correct.
P.S. I have the official rating of my brother here at home from Portsmouth.
R.G. Fairbrother
Croxton Kerrial