Four: Captain C. M. Beazley, Rifle Brigade, who was wounded at Loos in September 1915 - one good reason for him being ‘an artist who hated war’

1914-15 Star (2 Lieut., Rif. Brig.); British War and Victory Medals (Capt.); Defence Medal 1939-45, good very fine or better (4) £250-300

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Collection of Medals to the Cheshire and Manchester Regiments, Rifle Brigade and Royal Green Jackets formed by the late David Boniface.

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Charles Murray Beazely was born in July 1890 and was educated at Wellington College and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he was a member of the First Trinity Boat Club. Applying for a commission on the outbreak of hostilities, he was originally apppointed a 2nd Lieutenant in the East Lancashire Regiment, but transferred to the 6th Battalion, Rifle Brigade shortly afterwards. Embarked for France in June 1915, where in fact he joined ‘D’ Company of the 2nd Battalion, he was wounded in the attack on Bois Grenier during the battle of Loos on 25 September 1915. Having then rejoined his Battalion, he was badly concussed in September 1916, most probably in the Bethune sector, and once again invalided home. Beazely served latterly as an instructor at the 8th Division’s Lewis Gun School.

Demobilised in January 1919, he ‘refused to go into his father’s business in the London Stock Exchange, and went back to painting - the one occupation which completely absorbed him ... An artist who hated war, he was immensely proud of having served in the Regiment. Unconventional, with a great sense of fun, intolerant of any kind of sham, Charles Beazely will be remembered with real affection by all those who knew him’ (his obituary in the Royal Green Jackets Chronicle refers).

The husband of Lady Elizabeth Pelham, daughter of the 6th Earl of Chichester, Beazely died in April 1965.