Victoria Rifles
Sergeant John Nicholas Dowling Beveridge 457036, born in Kells County, Meath, Ireland on 30 March 1890. His mother resided at 104 Lower Baggot St, Dublin, Ireland. John residing at 111 Osborne Street, Montreal, Quebec. A clerk, his occupation.
Attestation of Sergeant John Beveridge
John enlisted 3 June 1915 in Montreal at the age of 25 years and two months. A Roman Catholic, John tall, standing 6 feet two inches, with fair complexion, blue eyes and auburn hair.
John belonged to the Active Militia at the time of his attestation. Nine months with the 55th Regiment, and one month with the Composite Regiment, attesting 3 June 1915 in Montreal.
In the nominal roll of the Victoria Rifles, John a Sergeant with ‘C’ Company. An entry in his service file states he was given 24 hours detention on 10 November 1915. Refusing to obey an order from a N.C.O., and he forfeited 4 days pay.
John arrived in England on 16 November 1915, and soon reverted to ranks at his own request. John so eager to get to the front. Soon after release from hospital for Influenza on 4 January 1916, he embarked overseas for service with the 60th Battalion, 2 February 1916. Later arriving at Le Havre on 22 February.
60th Battalion
Organized in May 1915 under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Frederick Arthur D Gascoigne, in addition, mobilized at Montreal, and recruited in Montreal. Draft of 250 sent to 23rd Canadian Reserve Battalion in August 1915, then embarked from Montreal 6 November 1915 aboard SS SCANDINAVIAN, and later disembarked England 16 November 1915 with a strength of 40 officers, 1024 other ranks. Arrived in France 20 February 1916, and later reinforced by 23rd Canadian Reserve Battalion.
60th Battalion withdrawn in April 1917 and replaced by 116th Battalion. Personnel absorbed by 87th Battalion and 5th Canadian Mounted Rifles. Disbanded by Privy Council Order 1717 of 27 July 1918. Perpetuated by The Victoria Rifles of Canada.
Beveridge rejoined his unit after treatment for an infected toe (right foot) on 14 April 1916, but soon attached for duty to the Salvage Company of the 3rd Canadian Division, which lasted until 27 August 1916.
The Battle of Flers-Courcelette
John wounded the next month on 15 September 1916, by the Sugar Factory in Courcelette on the first day of the Battle of Flers-Courcelette. Soon admitted to No. 1 Canadian General Hospital, Etaples, GSW to left shoulder.
John’s injuries severe, first blown up and buried, and then two hours later, he suffered the GSW to his shoulder, destroying most of his deltoid muscle, with compound fractures of his acromion and humerus. An unspecified wound to his thigh healed quickly.
Convalescence of Private John Beveridge
By 27 September 1916, convalescing in England, moving from Folkstone to Exeter, to Epsom, to Hastings and eventually to Shoreham hospitals, undergoing at least four operations. Finally invalided to Canada (HS LETITIA from Liverpool 11-5-17) for further medical treatment, arriving at a convalescent home in Montreal on 21 May 1917, his state of health delicate. Suffering from shell shock, and unable to bear noise or find quietude. Both hands marked by tremors, and unable to fall asleep.
After months of recovery for his physical and mental pain, suggested further treatment only exacerbates his nervous symptoms, and John discharged on 31 December 1917, intending to move to North Carolina at the residence of Mr. Jarvis Tryon. A home in the country suggested as the only means of recovery. Nervous and excitable, though he claims to sleep well. His general condition below par.
Beveridge discharged at Vancouver on 10 March 1919 in Military District No. 11.
Post Great War
John married in the 1930s to a Canadian daughter of the mill owner who employed him as an accountant back in circa 1914. They (Margaret & John) lived in Wilmington, North Carolina, and had no children. He was frail, and had difficulty manipulating his arm and shoulder. The Carolinas had a long history with early flight, and it was here he had contacts from before the war, owing to his interest and photography.
John had registered for med school at McGill, but had to drop out as he couldn’t reticulate owing to hearing loss. Brian Beveridge now a retired ophthalmologist whose career brought him to Essex. His father, decorated in both wars, RAMC Major General Arthur Joseph Beveridge, the identical twin who survived the Great War, where his twin James O’Shaughnessy Beveridge, 137th Field Ambulance, RAMC, killed on 22 November 1917, on a night march to the unsuccessful battle going on in Bourlon Wood.
Elizabeth McLoughlin (great-niece)
John’s service file records his date of death as 8 December 1959. Beveridge died at home, sixty-nine years of age, his death not related to his service.
James O’Shaughnessy Beveridge
Jim buried on the Bapaume Cambrai Road village of Lebucquiere, after a fruitless 6 hour hand-stretchered walk back through knee-deep mud to get him to a CCS. The Canadians had, just hours before, cleared the Germans out of the village, and Jim the first war burial there, a bucolic small CWGC extension type cemetery, beside the picturesque village graveyard, where sheep literally graze at its white picket fence.
Major-General Arthur Joseph Beveridge
I confirm that this portrait, taken in 1953, is of my late father, Maj-Gen. Arthur Joseph Beveridge, CB, OBE, MC (1893-1959) on the occasion of his investiture with the CB (Military) at a Buckingham Palace Investiture. On the left is my late sister Mrs Clare Elwes, who lived at Elsham Hall, Brigg, Lincs. and on the right my other sister Rosalind (“Lindy”) who in 1959 married John Bertin – the marriage ended in divorce about 11 years later. On her left lapel Lindy wears a jeweled Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) brooch, which belonged to her mother Sheila, who had died about a year before this picture was taken. Lindy wore the brooch at her father’s request, so that our mother would be remembered for her considerable contribution to Arthur’s success, and in this way would be part of this important family occasion.
Brian Beveridge
On 1 May 1951, Arthur Joseph Beveridge appointed as Honorary Physician to The King.
Prince Albert (later King George VI) mentioned in despatches for his actions as a turret officer aboard Collingwood in the Battle of Jutland (31 May – 1 June 1916), the great naval battle of the war. He did not see further combat, largely because of ill health caused by a duodenal ulcer, for which he had an operation in November 1917.