Beschreibung:

The John Chidzey Collection A good Great War ‘U-boat kill’ D.S.C. group of three awarded to Lieutenant F. E. Beeching, Royal Naval Reserve and Mercantile Marine, in which latter capacity he was a Captain in the service of the Great Eastern Railway Company’s fleet Distinguished Service Cross, G.V.R., hallmarks for London 1919; British War Medal 1914-20 (Lieut. F. E. Beeching, R.N.R.); Mercantile Marine War Medal 1914-18 (Frederick E. Beeching), good very fine (3) £1200-1500 Footnote D.S.C. London Gazette 22 December 1916: ‘In recognition of zeal and devotion to duty shown in carrying on the trade of the country during the War.’ Frederick Edward Beeching, who was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk in 1873, the scion of a local shipbuilding family. Master of the Great Eastern Railway Company’s S.S. Cromer on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he was employed on the Harwich-Rotterdam run, carrying refugees and Foreign Office despatches, in addition to fulfilling her usual commercial interests, which former work won him a recommendation for a commission in the Royal Naval Reserve in March 1915 (T.N.A. ADM 116/1464 refers). But it was for his gallant actions in April 1916 that he was awarded his D.S.C. Keble Chatterton’s Amazing Adventure takes up the story: ‘The Great Eastern Railway S.S. Cromer was on her way back from the Hook of Holland, doing her commercial passage under the command of Captain F. Beeching. It was a fine, clear, but dark, night and the time 11 p.m. The steamer had reached a position some half a dozen miles west of the Maas Lighthouse, when UB-13 (another lucky number!) could be seen about a couple of points on the starboard bow and trying to head the Cromer off. Captain Beeching, a fine sailorman and ship-handler, then tried one of those feats which to the layman seem so simple, but naval history has proved not so easy. To ram your enemy when steaming at high speed, and to strike him fairly instead of with a glancing blow, takes real seamanship and quick judgment even in daylight: but at night the task is considerably more tricky. Captain Beeching, however, determined to try saving his ship and passengers by attacking the enemy without further waste of time. The Cromer had no other weapon than her stem, and at that moment she was hopping along doing thirteen and a half knots. Porting her helm, she made for the vague shape, and a violent impact followed. It was a sliding blow, so that the submarine came against the steamer’s starboard bow, then down the latter’s side till it banged heavily at the Cromer’s stern. A great commotion rose from the submarine’s conning tower, and shouts were heard in a foreign tongue, but the steamer wisely did not wait to investigate further and hurried homewards. Her weight and speed and bilge keel had combined to effect useful service. When, presently, in England, a diver went down to examine the damage, he reported that the fore end of her starboard bilge keel (which was nine feet below water) had been scored, and another long mark was observed on that side some eighteen inches below the waterline. Before the end of the month she went into dry dock and the scratches were clearly revealed. One more unfortunate submarine had been accounted for ... ’ In addition to being decorated, Beeching was given a reward of £750 from the Admiralty, together with other public gifts, including £500 from Lord Glanly, who had set up a fund to recognise the gallantry of Masters of unarmed merchantmen following the murder of Captain Charles Fryatt on 27 July 1916 (Syren and Shipping refers). Also a result of this gallant exploit, and in order to avoid a similar fate as Captain Fryatt, Beeching was relieved of his command and appointed an Assistant to the Shipping Intelligence Officer at Newcastle in the rank of Temporary Lieutenant, R.N.R., and in which capacity his name was brought to notice in the London Gazette of 16 September 1919. Beeching, who returned to his duties with the Great Eastern R