Cover of The Day 17 May 2020 - William Dawson Beatty OBE

[Peter Harvey]

My 'card' of the day is an ordinary WW1 Field Service Postcard cancelled with the s/r ARMY POST OFFICE SZ16 date stamp used in 1916 - SZ 16 was used at Assuit in Egypt for the majority of WW1 and did not move to Palestine until early in 1919. My interest is the address and the senders name as signs on reverse.

WW1 items to Ireland are more difficult to find and the signature W Dawson Beatty identifies the writer as Willian Dawson Beatty, son of Major General Robert Beatty 1836 - 1909. The Major General appears to have been a larger than life character, with the history books describing is military career as 'swashbuckling' around India.... at 40 years of age and not married he returned to Ireland, married and then between life in Ireland and India fathered 10 - 11 children.

Back to the card: Robert Beatty named two of his sons William Dawson Beatty, both engineers and one serving from the outbreak of WW1 with the RFC, initially actively engaged in setting up the RFC base at St Omer in France, his medal collection include being awarded the Order of St Anne (conferred by The Emperor of Russia), the Croix de Chevalier, the Air Force Cross and finally, the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire.

The card was posted by his brother (the other William) serving with 7th Field Survey Company in Egypt, and then in Palestine, where he was actively engaged in producing maps for military use. He returned to India after WW1 only to return to the UK in WW2 as a civili engineer working in the Admiralty.

[Alan Baker]

Always good to find a story behind what is often an ordinary item