b. 05/10/1895 Gresley, Derbyshire. d. 23/09/1966 Abergavenny, Wales.
William Beesley (1895-1966) was born on 5th October 1895 at 74 Top Colliery Rows, Gresley, Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. His father, John, was born in Stratford upon Avon, Warwickshire. He married Emma Marriott Hinds nee Hill in 1895 at Burton upon Trent. She had been previously married to Edward Hinds and had two children. Edward died in 1894. William had a younger sister, Emma.
William was educated at Ansley Village School, near Nuneaton. He worked as a miner at Haunchwood (Tunnel) Colliery, Nuneaton. In 1911 he was living with his mother and her third husband, James Ealing, and was described as a point lad on a pit bank. He enlisted in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps at Nuneaton Police Station on 27th August 1914 but was rejected at the first attempt on account of his age. He joined the back of the queue, gave his age as twenty and was successful at the second attempt. He went to France on 21st May 1915 with 9th Battalion. On 30th July he was wounded by a splinter in the shoulder at Hooge, Belgium. This occurred during the counterattack following the first use of flamethrowers by the Germans against the British. Second Lieutenant Sydney Woodroffe, 8th Rifle Brigade, was awarded the VC for the same action. He was wounded again on 25th November in the legs whilst taking supplies up the St Julien Road. He was evacuated to Britain on 8th December.
He transferred to the Rifle Brigade in early 1916 and returned to France in time for the Somme offensive with 13th Brigade. He was wounded a third time on 3rd May 1917.
William Beesley VC
On 8th May 1918 at Bucquoy, France, when Private Beesley’s platoon sergeant and all the section commanders were killed he took command. Single-handed he rushed a post, shot four of the enemy, took six prisoners and sent them back to his lines. He and a comrade then brought his Lewis gun into action, inflicting many casualties and holding their position for four hours until the second private was wounded. Private Beesley, by himself, maintained his position until nightfall, when he returned to the original line with the wounded man and the Lewis gun which he kept in action until things had quietened down.
In the same action, William Gregg would also be awarded the VC. He was promoted Corporal on 28th June 1918, the day that the award of his VC was announced in the London Gazette. He was subsequently invited to tea in the trenches with his Commanding Officer and to lunch with his Divisional Commander who also gave him a box of chocolates. HE was granted the Freedom of the Borough of Nuneaton at a ceremony in Riversley Park on 17th July 1918 at the same time as Cecil Knox VC. He was also presented with £700 in War Bonds and a marble clock by the town. On 9th August 1918 he and Sergeant Gregg received their V.C.’s together from King George V at a field investiture at HQ Third Army at Frohen-le-Grand, France.
On 15th July 1919 he was awarded the French Medaille Militaire for an earlier undocumented action during the war. He was demobilized in the same year and returned to work in the mines. William married Ada Mary Wilson on 4th April 1920 at St Paul’s Church, Stockingford, Nuneaton. The four bridesmaids wore miniature VCs. The reception was held at the Royal Oak pub in Hartshill and they settled in Coventry. They had four children – Rosemary, John, Kenneth and William. After leaving the mines, he was employed at Wickman’s, a machine tool manufacturer in Coventry. In 1939 he was working as a lavatory attendant.
During the Second World War he joined the Royal Artillery, instructing recruits at Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool. He later transferred to other duties at Meriden, Warwickshire but was discharged in 1941 due to his age. Around this time his marriage to Ada failed, and they never reconciled after he rejoined the Army. He then began living with Elizabeth “Bessie” May Shore nee Shaw from Abergavenny, who had been married before. No trace of William and Bessie marrying has been found. On her death, she was buried with William and recorded as his wife on the headstone.
After the war he worked for a manufacturing company at Coventry as a commissionaire before retiring in 1960. In 1954, William Beesley attended the funeral of Arthur Hutt VC in Coventry. He was part of the cortege that formed up at the Canley railway crossing and followed Hutt’s coffin on foot to Canley Crematorium. Notably, he refused to wear his own medals at the funeral out of respect for his fellow VC recipient. He also attended the dedication of the memorial to Arthur Hutt VC in Coventry’s War Memorial Park on 17th April 1955, alongside Henry Tandey VC. The ceremony was carried out by Reverend Arthur Procter VC.
William Beesley fell ill on a holiday in Abergavenny, Wales and died in the Nevill Hall Hospital on 23rd September 1966, aged 70. His body was returned to Coventry, where he was buried in St Paul’s Cemetery. Henry Tandey VC attended the funeral. He is also commemorated with William Beesley Crescent in Nuneaton, on the Rifle Brigade Memorial in Winchester Cathedral, on a memorial plaque on the War Memorial, Coventry, and with a VC commemorative stone at War Memorial Grounds, Castle Gresley, Swadlincote, Staffordshire unveiled on 8th May 2018.
In addition to his VC, he was awarded the 1914-15 Star, British War Medal 1914-20, Victory Medal 1914-19, Defence Medal 1939-45, War Medal 1939-45, King George VI Coronation Medal 1937, Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal 1953 and the Medaille Militaire (France). He used to keep his medals in a brown paper bag in a drawer. The medals are held by the Royal Green Jackets Museum, Winchester, Hampshire.
LOCATION OF MEDAL: ROYAL GREEN JACKETS MUSEUM, WINCHESTER, HAMPSHIRE.
BURIAL PLACE: ST PAUL’S CEMETERY, COVENTRY, WARWICKSHIRE.
Acknowledgements:
Thomas Stewart – Medal Group at the Royal Green Jackets Museum, Winchester
Brian Drummond – VC Stone in Church Gresley, Derbyshire.