Reuben Alexander Beck was born on the 9th October 1887, at the Marine Barracks, Chatham, Kent. At the time of the 1891 census he was living with his family at 4 Chatham Place, Walmer, Kent, described as a scholar. At the next census, in 1901, he was living with his family at 59 Salisbury Road, Chatham. Up to the age of 14 he went to the Wesleyan Elementary School in Arden Street, Gillingham, after which, having passed the entrance examination, he went on to the Chatham Dockyard School. He entered Chatham Dockyard as an apprentice shipwright on the 10th July 1902; the apprenticeship was for six years.1
Reuben, or Reub, as he was known, was a very keen sportsman before he married, playing a very good game as goalkeeper for the Dockyard Apprentices football team; on one occasion, playing away at Herne Bay, he came onto the pitch carrying a winger under each arm, to the amusement of the crowd. He was a supporter of Gillingham Football Club, and would always attend home games on Saturday afternoons. Until his final illness he was a keen cricket enthusiast, and supported the Medway Towns Cricket Club, of which two of his sons became members. He was also an active follower of the Kent Cricket Club, and visited every ground in the county to watch the county team play. In his youth, he was a familiar sight as anchorman in the Dockyard tug-of-war team. He also swam, having learned the hard way by being taken to a large raft moored in the Medway off Chatham Pier and pushed in!2
On the 6th June 1910 he married [E1] Ruth Elizabeth Baggs, at St Mark's parish church, New Brompton, Kent. At the time he was living in New Brompton. Directly after the marriage the couple moved to 31 Marlborough Road, Gillingham, Kent - a very large, rented, family house, where he lived for most of the remainder of his life (the house was later renumbered to 225).
Their children were: Alexander William (1911), Reuben Percival (1913), [A1]
Sidney John Thomas (1915), William Arthur (1917), Gladys Ruth May (1918), and
Edgar Robert (1921).3
He worked as a shipwright for most of his working life. After the battle of Jutland in 1916 he was sent up to work for a time at Rosyth, in Scotland. He spent much of his time building submarines, but he also helped on cruisers and other ships; among ships he worked on was the cruiser H.M.S.
Kent, launched in 1926. The first submarine built at Chatham - the C17 - had been built in 1908, but Reuben is not thought to have worked on it. It is not known if he worked on the Warren, the only destroyer built at Chatham, in 1918 - but if he did, he would certainly have worked on the keel. In October 1917 he applied for Establishment as a shipwright, and this appointment (without competition) on the 24th of April 1918. In the late 1920s to early '30s his pay was about £3 per week.4
His work often involved crawling down pipes deep in the bowels of ships; on one occasion, wearing a jacket because it was a particularly cold day, he got stuck in a U-bend, and only escaped by wriggling out of his jacket.5
On Wednesday the 6th April 1933, when working in dry dock, he fell off a platform onto another platform a little way below. An upright iron post stopped him from falling 100 feet to the bottom of the dock. He reported to the doctor at the yard, who said he was O.K. He walked all the way home - about a mile and a half - arriving there pale and shaken, where he broke down - the only occasion on which he was seen to cry; it was not so much his injuries - for on calling the doctor out to him he was transferred the following day to the Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham, and found to have four broken ribs (nos 9, 10, 11 & 12) - as the shock of how bad the fall could have been. He had to stay in hospital a whole month, leaving hospital on Wednesday the 3rd May, and resuming work the day after.6
For a long time he refused promotion to shipwright's chargeman, because he didn't want to distance himself from his workmates. When he finally agreed to be a chargeman (some time in the 1930s) he regretted he had not accepted the post earlier. In the years before the Second World War he may have earned £18-20 a week, as a chargeman. His new responsibilities involved being in charge of a gang working on piece rates, which meant much worry for him in assessing what each man in the gang should be paid. His gang was allocated a sum of money to complete a job, and as chargeman he had to allocate and pace the work, to get the job done for the sum allocated; a good chargeman could obtain a bonus for each man over and above the standard rate of pay for other gangs.7
During the war shipbuilding was repetitive work, working to standard plans. But in the repair of war-damaged ships Reuben was obliged to undertake many horrible jobs. One particularly unpleasant instance, which always stayed with him, was when he worked on a ship where an explosion had gone off in the ship's galley; men working there had been thrown against the hot ovens, which had tipped over, their tops rolling back like springs and wrapping their bodies; when the ship returned to the yard, it was Reuben's job to retrieve their remains. The ship concerned was probably the Pelican, returning from Dunkirk. Some of the repair work undertaken during the war was carried out from a floating dock, moored off Sheerness, to which Reuben and other shipwrights were ferried every day.8
Sidney Beck’s Mass-Observation diary gives a glimpse of Reuben in July 1942: he told them ‘how all the creeks and inlets on the Thames & Medway were crowded with [invasion?] barges and that in the Dockyard they had been practising running tanks in & out of the barges.’8A
He retired on Friday the 10th October 1947, at the age of 60. This was the upper age limit, and at that time there was no provision for additional pension if you extended your service. On his certificate of service under the Admiralty, he is described as an Established Shipwright (permanent chargeman), having served as a Shipwright apprentice from 18.7.02 to 17.7.08, and then as a shipwright in the Constructive Department of Chatham Dockyard from 18.7.08 to 10.10.47; both his conduct, and the quality of service he rendered, are described as Very good. On the certificate of his entitlement to pension, he is described as 6 ft tall, with grey hair and brown eyes; following 12 yrs 197 days of hired time, and 29 yrs 170 days of established service, he was entitled to a pension of £152.16.7d per annum. Soon after his retirement he received the Imperial Service Medal.9
In 1953, a widower since 1949, he went to live at 211 Marlborough Road.10
Standing 6'6" tall, he was a very large man, very muscular and strong (as he demonstrated in Herne Bay!); but he was very gentle, in his way. He was very good as a father, not only doing a lot of domestic chores, but also playing with the children - helping to educate them, playing cardgames and spelling games, and playing football and cricket with them, on the field in front of their house, when he could.11
He took pleasure in singing, particularly music-hall songs - he had a good strong voice. In common with many, he enjoyed a Friday night drink in the pub (the Napier Arms). And on a Saturday he and Ruth often visited Barnard's Palace of Varieties - the in place in those days - where he certainly saw Marie Lloyd, and possibly Gracie Fields, perform.12
He was not much of a churchgoer - he might visit St Mark's on special occasions, but not very often. Conversely, he was very politically minded. A Labour voter, he often discussed current affairs at home; he had, for instance, strong views on the abdication of Edward VIII, supporting Stanley Baldwin's line.13
For three days over Christmas 1955 he stayed with the St Albans Beck family. On Friday the 2nd November 1956, Reuben suffered a stroke. He died at 11:20 a.m., on Wednesday the 14th November 1956, at home, at 211 Marlborough Road, of cerebral haemorrhage, hypertension, and arteriosclerosis. His body was cremated at Charing on Monday the 19th.14
1 birth certificate; interview with Sidney Beck, conducted by Benjamin Beck & Debbie Wells; transcript by BSB; Reuben A. Beck's diary/birthday book, possessed by Gladys Mills; obituary of R.A. Beck, from unknown Gillingham newspaper, in my possession; R.A. Beck: Articles of Apprenticeship, in my possession; census returns; PRO RG 13/728
2 information from Sidney Beck; Interview with Sidney Beck, conducted by Benjamin Beck & Debbie Wells; Ms
Memoirs, Sidney Beck; obituary of R.A. Beck, from unknown Gillingham newspaper, in my possession
3 marriage certificate; Interview with Sidney Beck, conducted by Benjamin Beck & Debbie Wells; information from
Sidney Beck; Interview with Sidney Beck, begun Easter 1986
4 marriage certificate; son's birth certificate; Interview with Sidney Beck, conducted by Benjamin Beck & Debbie
Wells; information from Sidney Beck; father's letters of administration; letters to me from Sidney & Ruth Beck; Letter from Bill Beck to Sidney Beck 8 Aug 1989; R.A. Beck: memorandum notifying establishment, in my possession; London Gazette 30668 1918-05-03
5 Interview with Sidney Beck, conducted by Benjamin Beck & Debbie Wells
6 Interview with Sidney Beck, conducted by Benjamin Beck & Debbie Wells; Reuben A. Beck's diary/birthday
book, possessed by Gladys Mills
7 letters to me from Sidney & Ruth Beck
8 Interview with Sidney Beck, conducted by Benjamin Beck & Debbie Wells; letters to me from Sidney & Ruth
Beck; Letter from Bill Beck to Sidney Beck 8 Aug 1989
8A Sidney Beck’s Mass-Observation diary (D 5021)
9 Reuben A. Beck's diary/birthday book, possessed by Gladys Mills; information from Sidney Beck; wife's death
certificate; obituary of R.A. Beck, from unknown Gillingham newspaper, in my possession; R.A. Beck's notice of discharge & certificate of service under the Admiralty, in my possession; R.A. Beck: certificate of discharge and entitlement to pension, in my possession; Sidney Beck said he retired at 65, but this is clearly an error.
10 Sidney Beck: Ms Diary; S.J. & R. Beck, Visitors' Book
11 Interview with Sidney Beck, conducted by Benjamin Beck & Debbie Wells; Interview with Sidney Beck, begun
Easter 1986; Ms Memoirs, Sidney Beck
12 Interview with Sidney Beck, conducted by Benjamin Beck & Debbie Wells; Interview with Sidney Beck, begun
Easter 1986; Letter from Bill Beck to Sidney Beck 8 Aug 1989; letters to me from Sidney & Ruth Beck; Letter to me from Gladys Mills; Sidney Beck: Ms Diary
13 Interview with Sidney Beck, conducted by Benjamin Beck & Debbie Wells; information from Sidney Beck
14 death certificate; Sidney Beck: Ms Diary; Diaries of Mary S.W. Pollard; S.J. & R. Beck, Visitors' Book; Interview
with Sidney Beck, begun Easter 1986; obituary of R.A. Beck, from unknown Gillingham newspaper, in my possession
15 birth certificate; information from Sidney Beck
A3. Reuben Beck
Reuben Beck was born on the 25th November 1854 in the Cookham Union workhouse, Berkshire, and baptised on the 15th April 1855 at Burnham, Bucks.1
He remained in the workhouse 29 days after his birth, and it is clear that by 1860 he had returned to the workhouse; he is described there as
illegitimate, a labourer's child, Church (of England). He was living there at the time of the 1861 census, which described him as a scholar,
and a pauper. He lived permanently in the workhouse till 1867, for almost all this time separated from his family, until his mother returned to
the workhouse in his final year there, to die.2
On the 2nd October 1871, apparently falsifying his birth date, he enlisted in the Royal Marines. He was described as a labourer, Church of
England, 5'5¾", fresh complexion, brown hair, hazel eyes, with no marks, wounds or scars.3
Until June 1875 he was a private, based at Chatham. From December 1873 to July 1874 he served on board the ships Malabar, Hibernia, and
Swiftsure. The latter two ships were stationed in the Mediterranean, the Hibernia - flagship of the Admiral Superintendent of the Dockyard -
being specifically stationed at Malta. During this period his character was described as V. Good.4
In 1875 he obtained a 2nd class school certificate, and was promoted to corporal, which he remained until February 1879, based at Chatham,
his character now Excellent.5
On the 16th September 1876 he married [C1] Louisa Jarvis, at St Paul's Church, New-road, Chatham. The couple’s first child was born in December that year, at 17 Regent Place, New Road, Chatham; ‘Charles Reuben’ is described on his son’s birth certificate as corporal R.M., 41st cpy, of 17 Regent Place.
Their
children were: Charles Ernest (1876), Angela Louisa (1878), Eleanor Matilda (1880), Maud Emily (1881 or 1882), [A2] Reuben Alexander
(1887), Ethel Alice (1889), Edgar Percival (1890), Dorothy Catherine (1891),
Hilda May (1894), & Elsie Florence (1896).In April 1878 the family were living at 5 Mount, New Road, Chatham. Reuben was present at his son’s death there at the end of May.6
From February 1879 to June 1884 he was a sergeant, based at Chatham, his character Ex., or V. Good. For just over a year, around 1879/80, he served as recruiting sergeant. In January 1880 the family were living at Whittakers Place, New Road, Chatham.7
From February 1881 to March 1884 he served with the Flora, in South Africa. The 1881 census finds him stationed with the
Flora - but not on board ship; the Flora at anchor in Saviours Bay, Cape of Good Hope, a fourth class receiving ship, under Commander Henry Townley Wright. Reuben reengaged on the 28th October that year; his physical description was unchanged, save that he had grown to 5'8". In 1881 he received a good conduct medal:
a notice was published in The Times on 20 December that ‘Sergt. Reuben
Beck, R.M., of the Flora’ had been awarded the ‘medal for long service and good
conduct’. He served as hospital sergeant at Simons Town, just outside Cape Town. In 1883 he became a Freemason, joining the Royal Alfred Lodge (420) at Simons Town, Cape of Good Hope (and by the time of his golden wedding anniversary in 1926 he was one of the oldest Freemasons in the Medway towns). In February 1884 he was discharged from his ship, and given mail steamer passage to England. He had apparently been involved in the war with the Zulus - he returned to England with a Zulu assagai and shield.8
After June 1884 every commanding officer he had recommended him for a gratuity. From June 1884 to September 1891 he was a colour sergeant, based at Chatham, his character V.G. He was also appointed company sergeant (equivalent in rank to company sergeant-major), a position he retained for three years. In October 1887 the Beck family were living at the Royal Marine Barracks in Chatham. Reuben last passed the sea service gunnery drill in January 1888. In March 1888 he was raised to the rank of acting quartermaster-sergeant, R.M. Depot, Deal, being confirmed in that rank at the Chatham Division in August 1891, and remaining there until October 1892. From 1889 to 1890 the family were living in A. House, N. Barracks, Walmer Depot. In the 1891 census Reuben is shown as employed as a Color Sergeant Royal Marines, living with his family at 4 Chatham Place, Walmer, Kent. In August that year the family resided at No 2 Cambell Road, Walmer.9
From September 1891 to October 1892 he was a second master sergeant at Chatham, living in the Marine Barracks, his character described as V.G. On the 7th October 1892 he was discharged on the ground of length of service; by this time he had grown to 5'9½", and his complexion had become dark; he possessed five good conduct badges at discharge, at which time he was living at 24 Clover St, Chatham; he lived there until 1894.10
From February 1893 to the end of 1897 he was timekeeper for the Naval Ordnance Department, at the Gunwharf in Chatham, having successfully passed the exam for the appointment. From 1895-8 he lived at 88 New Road, Chatham. At the end of 1897 he was appointed foreman of the stores. From 1898 to 1907 he lived at 59 Salisbury Road, Chatham. The 1901 census finds him there, a foreman and recorder of labour at the Gun Wharf, Chatham, living with his wife and eight children. By 1909 he had moved to 2 Thorold Road, Chatham, where he lived till at least 1917. In that year he was present at the early death, aged 27, of his son Edgar Percival, at their home.11
After 23 years service in the stores he was superannuated, obtaining a gratuity and pension, but even then he still felt fit for work, and secured a position at the Rochester Recruiting Office, which he retained until the staff was reduced. Shortly afterwards he became a writer or clerk in the R.E. Record Office, and continued in that position until May 1919, thus completing 46½ years in one or other branch of the services.12
In 1909 he had been a founder of the Army and Navy Veterans' Club, Clover-street, Chatham, of which he was Secretary in 1913 (the club then at 16 Clover Street); he also founded the Gillingham branch of the National Association of Navy and Army Pensioners, of which by 1932 he was Chairman.13
By 1920 he had moved to 21 Malvern Road, Gillingham, where he lived until at least 1924. By 1926 he had gone to live with his daughter Angela at 68 Watling Street, Gillingham. In that year he and Louisa celebrated their golden wedding anniversary, the occasion being covered by the local paper; the couple received a telegram of congratulations from Gillingham's MP, Sir Gerald F. Hohler.14
A non-smoker, his principal recreation was gardening, and in his retirement he could be found any morning on his allotment in First-avenue.15
He is remembered by his grandson Sidney Beck as quite impressively severe-looking, with a thick moustache - a medium-sized heavily-built man, strong, and always a bit severe. He ruled the family with a rod of iron - he would sometimes beat his son Reuben with the buckle end of his great leather uniform belt.16
He died on the 30th October 1932, at the Royal Naval Hospital, Chatham, after a few hours' illness; a post mortem showed that he died of acute peptic ulcers to the stomach, and haemorrhage. He was buried on the 2nd November, in Chatham cemetery. His effects at his death were valued at £55.2.5d.17
Reuben Beck was the only child known of
[B1] Emma Beck.18
1 Details as given by birth certificate and parish register, which seem the most reliable. Armed forces service record, Public Record Office, gives date of birth as 3 Oct 1853; his own hand recorded it as 25 Nov 1853 in the family Bible, though his son recorded it as 25 Nov 1854 in the same source. The family Bible gives his name as Charles Reuben Beck. Armed forces service record, Public Record Office, and 1861, 1881 & 1891 census returns give place of birth as Burnham, in Bucks/Berks.
2 Maidenhead Guardians records, Berkshire RO/2-6; census returns. Census returns give his surname as 'Becks'.
3 Armed forces service record, Public Record Office
4 Armed forces service record, Public Record Office; c11 - source reference corrupted; Navy List
5 Armed forces service record, Public Record Office
6 marriage certificate; information from family Bible; son’s birth and death certificate;
daughters' birth certificates; information from Sidney Beck
7 Armed forces service record, Public Record Office; letter and enclosures to Sidney Beck, from his uncle Harry Harding; information from family Bible; daughter's birth certificate
8 census returns; armed forces service record, Public Record Office;
interview with Sidney Beck, conducted by
Benjamin Beck & Debbie Wells; transcript by BSB; letter and enclosures to Sidney Beck, from his uncle Harry Harding;
The Times 20 Dec 1881. Armed forces service record, Public Record Office records details of his discharge in a column headed 'Wounded', but here and in 1881/91 a comparison with letter and enclosures to Sidney Beck, from his uncle Harry Harding suggests that the column was being used for other purposes, and the 'wounded' reference should be disregarded.
9 Armed forces service record, Public Record Office; son's birth certificate; letter and enclosures to Sidney Beck,
from his uncle Harry Harding; census returns; information from family Bible (his daughter’s 1891 birth certificate describes him as a Quarter Master Sergeant R.M., with her birth being at 4 Chatham Place, Walmer)
10 Armed forces service record, Public Record Office; Kelly's Directory; information from family Bible; daughter’s birth certificate
11 Kelly's Directory; son's and mother-in-law's death certificates; obituary Chatham, Rochester & Gillingham Observer 4 Nov 1932; letter and enclosures to Sidney Beck, from his uncle Harry Harding; information from family Bible; PRO RG 13/728
12-13 obituary Chatham, Rochester & Gillingham Observer 4 Nov 1932; Kelly’s Directory, 1913; letter and enclosures to Sidney Beck, from his uncle Harry Harding
14 s5 - source reference corrupted; Kelly's Directory; letter and enclosures to Sidney Beck, from his uncle Harry
Harding; wife's death certificate
15 letter and enclosures to Sidney Beck, from his uncle Harry Harding
16 Interview with Sidney Beck, conducted by Benjamin Beck & Debbie Wells; information from Sidney Beck
17 Notice of Death Chatham, Rochester & Gillingham Observer 4 Nov 1932; death certificate; Interview with
Sidney Beck, begun Easter 1986; letters of administration
18 birth certificate; parish register. Reuben's marriage certificate shows a father's name, 'William Beck', but it seems
highly probable that this was just a device to conceal his illegitimacy and the enigma of his paternity.
Reuben Alexander Beck was born on the 9th October 1887, at the Marine Barracks, Chatham, Kent. At the time of the 1891 census he was living with his family at 4 Chatham Place, Walmer, Kent, described as a scholar. At the next census, in 1901, he was living with his family at 59 Salisbury Road, Chatham. Up to the age of 14 he went to the Wesleyan Elementary School in Arden Street, Gillingham, after which, having passed the entrance examination, he went on to the Chatham Dockyard School. He entered Chatham Dockyard as an apprentice shipwright on the 10th July 1902; the apprenticeship was for six years.1
For a long time he refused promotion to shipwright's chargeman, because he didn't want to distance himself from his workmates. When he finally agreed to be a chargeman (some time in the 1930s) he regretted he had not accepted the post earlier. In the years before the Second World War he may have earned £18-20 a week, as a chargeman. His new responsibilities involved being in charge of a gang working on piece rates, which meant much worry for him in assessing what each man in the gang should be paid. His gang was allocated a sum of money to complete a job, and as chargeman he had to allocate and pace the work, to get the job done for the sum allocated; a good chargeman could obtain a bonus for each man over and above the standard rate of pay for other gangs.7
Reuben Beck was born on the 25th November 1854 in the Cookham Union workhouse, Berkshire, and baptised on the 15th April 1855 at Burnham, Bucks.1