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BEAMISH, Francis Teulon OBE (1890-1973)

BEAMISH, Dr Francis Teulon OBE (1890-1973)


Francis Beamish was born on 22 September 1890, the son of Frank Teulon Beamish and Charlotte Emma nee Aspinall, of Chestnut Road, Woolwich, England.

He was educated at Geelong College, enrolled there by Mrs Beamish listing her address as 'Bengower', Latrobe Terrace, Geelong. There is no date of enrolment or departure listed for him but he is listed as the recipient of many awards in the Annual Reports implying that he was at Geelong College from at least 1902 to 1907. These include:
1902, 1st, Dux, Middle 4th Class.
1902, 1st English, Middle 4th Class.
1902, 1st, History, Middle 4th Class.
1902, 1st, Geography, Middle 4th Class.
1902, 1st, Algebra, Lower 4th Class.
1902, 1st, Euclid, Middle 4th Class.
1902, 1st, Scripture, Middle 4th Class.
1903, 1st, Dux, Upper 4th Class.
1903, 1st, English, Upper 4th Class.
1903, 1st, Latin, Upper 4th Class.
1904, 1st, Dux, University Form B.
1904, 2nd, English, University Form B.
1904, 2nd, History, University Form B.
1904, 1st, Algebra, University Form B.
1905, 1st, Latin, University Form A.
1906, 1st, Chemistry, 6th Form.
1906, 2nd, Physics, 6th Form.
1906, 1st, Trigonometry.
1907, 2nd, Algebra, 6th Form.
1907, 1st, Geometry, 6th Form.
1907, 1st, Chemistry, Honour 6th.
1907, 1st, Physics, Honour 6th.
1907, 2nd, Trigonometry, Honour 6th.
1907, Geelong College Exit Scholarship.

He later entered Ormond College, The University of Melbourne, where he graduated MB BS, and won an Athletic blue. He enlisted in 1915 as a Captain in the Australian Army Medical Corps embarked on HMAT A13 Katuna on 3 February 1915 with 3rd Light Horse Field Ambulance, and served in Egypt, and on Gallipoli. There he was RMO to the 8th Light Horse, as recorded by John Hamilton in Goodbye Cobber, God Bless You:
A new medical officer, Captain Frank Beamish - ‘a nice chap . . . glad to come to us’, wrote (Colonel Alexander) White’ - had joined the 8th. Beamish was seconded from the 13th Infantry Battalion, to take Sid’s (Campbell) place.

Beamish was at the graveside after his older College compatriot, Major E A E Gregory (1882-1915) + was killed, aged 33, at Russell’s Top on Central Anzac on 27 June 1915, and buried at Ari Burnu Cemetery. Beamish was mentioned in Despatches, gazetted 5 April 1916:
'This officer has consistently done fine work throughout the operations on Gallipoli, and has displayed at all times much ability, zeal, and devotion to duty, which has had most excellent results in respect to the health and condition of the unit to which he was attached. I feel it my duty therefore to submit his name for the favourable notice of the General Officer Commanding.'

After the Evacuation from the Gallipoli Peninsula he went on to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), serving as Regimental Medical Officer (RMO) to the 10th Infantry Brigade, then the 1st Infantry Battalion, and the 3rd Infantry Battalion. He was promoted Major in November 1917, and DADMS to AIF Depots in England in November 1918. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (Military Division), gazetted 1 January 1919, in the Christmas List 1918. He returned to Australia on 15 January 1919 on HMT City of Exeter, disembarking in May 1919.

Francis Beamish Teulon died on 1 January 1973.


Sources: Geelong Collegians at the Great War compiled by James Affleck pp135-6 (citing Pegasus; National Archives; The University of Melbourne: Record of Active Service of Teachers, Graduates, Undergraduates, Officers and Servants 1926; John Hamilton, Goodbye Cobber, God Bless You: The fatal charge of the Light Horse, Gallipoli, August 7th 1915).
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