Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Father Henry Beck  and  Mother Catherine Beck  (nee Ryan)
living at  Watervale, South Australia.

Next of kin:
Older Brother:   Francis C Beck  Waikerie, South Australia
Sister:                Ethel Beck, Watervale, South Australia

Described on enlisting as 25 years old; single; 5' 10" tall; 140 lbs; dark complexion;
blue-grey eyes; dark brown hair, Roman Catholic.
 

8/1/1915         Enlisted at Oaklands, South Australia
                       completed medical at Oaklands, fit for service

8/1/1915         Commanding Officer appointed Horace to:
                       Base Light Horse, 7th reinforcements, 3rd Light Horse Regiment

24/6/1915       Embarked from Outer Harbour, Port Adelaide,  on board HMAT A61 Kanowna
                       as a Private, with the 3rd Light Horse Regiment, 7th reinforcement

3/11/1915       Joined 3rd Light Horse unit in Gallipoli

20/12/1915     Disembarked per HMAT A10 Karroo  into Alexandria, Egypt, from Gallipoli 
29/12/1915     Joined Western Front Force, Alexandria Egypt, with 3rd Light Horse

Back in Egypt, the 3rd Light Horse joined the ANZAC Mounted Division.
Between January and May 1916, the regiment was deployed to protect the Nile valley from bands of pro-Turkish Senussi Arabs.

23/2/1916       sick to hospital, El Gaar, Egypt - Pyrexia
                       admitted to 1st Light Horse Field Ambulance
26/2/1916       admitted to Field Ambulance, Wadi Matuh
28/2/1916       transferred to 3rd Welsh Field Ambulance, Seli Salami
7/3/1916         discharged to duty, El Gear

10/3/1916       returned to duty, Tel-El-Kebir, with 1st Light Horse Regiment

21/4/1916       Transfer to 4th Division Artillery, Serapeum
21/4/1916       Taken on strength 4th Division Artillery Column, posted to No.2 Section, Serapeum
                       as a Gunner

6/6/1916         Proceeded to join British Expeditionary Forces, ex Alexandria, Egypt
                       on board HMAT Oriana

13/6/1916       disembarked into Marseilles, France

25/6/1916       transferred to 4th Heavy Medium Trench Mortar Battery, France
                       taken on strength V4A Trench Mortar Battery

Like Medium Mortar Batteries, Heavy Medium Trench Mortar Battery were manned by artillerymen. In 1916 one heavy trench mortar battery was formed in each division, numbered VnA where V was the letter V and not the number 5 and n was the division number, similar to the Medium Trench Mortar Batteries. The letter W was allocated for a second heavy trench mortar battery per division but these were never formed. Heavy Trench Mortar Batteries were each equipped with four 9.45 inch (240mm) mortars. In January 1918 the batteries were disbanded and a single battery of six 9.45 inch mortars was assigned to the Australian Corps Heavy Artillery.

Trench mortar crews had two polite nicknames which have been recorded "The shoot and scoot mob" and "the duckboard harriers", due to the tendency to draw retaliatory fire.  By all accounts they were very unpopular with the infantry who had to stay and wear ”the hate“.  (courtesy of Ross on 1914-1918 invisionzone).

Their development from 1916 onwards, their usage in wire cutting, trench raids, collaboration with brigade and divisional artillery as the medium batteries moved from control under Infantry brigades to the ammunition column to the divisional artillery.

24/7/1916       Promoted to Bombardier, France

11/9/1916       Promoted to Corporal, France
                       with Trench Mortar Battery

3/5/1917         Killed in action, Bullecourt, France
buried in:        No known grave

Commemorated at:   Australian National Memorial
                                 Villers-Bretonneaux, France

Medals:
WWI 1914-15 Star (3257), British War Medal (14918), Victory Medal (14859)
Memorial Plaque and Memorial Scroll (323204).

Birth details: South Australian Births 1842 - 1906 Book: 432 Page: 379 District: UpW.

Sourced and sumbitted by Julianne T Ryan.  22/11/2014.  Lest we forget.