WILLIAM THOMAS HAMLYN BEARD
1896 – 1963
William Beard was born in April 1896 to Thomas Beard and Mary Grace Hamlyn. He had one brother (Ernest) and three sisters (Annie, Louisa and Elizabeth) together with one half-sister (Jeannie Hamlyn). The family lived at Little Cator, where Thomas worked as a farm labourer.
Like other children in the Beard family, William attended Widecombe School between 1907 and 1910 having previously attended school at Leusdon. After leaving school, William learned to be a butcher, whilst lodging with the Walke family in Newton Abbot.
The only wartime service record relating to William Thomas Hamlyn Beard indicates he served with the 3rd/6th Battalion Devonshire Regiment (A reserve regiment which did not see overseas service.) The Regiment did train men for front line service for other Battalions and Regiments and in 1917 William was posted to the Somerset Light Infantry.
William, along with the Regiment, was posted to India where he served at Rawalpindi and Lahore on Garrison duties until the end of the War.
Following his demobilisation in 1923 William married Ellen Louisa Axford in Totnes. Nothing is known about his life following this date. William died in April 1963 at Ashburton Hospital which registered him as living in Marldon in Devon’s South Hams.
Previous: William Richard Beard Next: William Henry Bray