BEAMAN Wilfred Harry

1. Wilfred Beaman was born on 28th September 1895. He entered Old Swinford Hospital on 16th June 1903. He was apprenticed to Messrs. Fathers & Sons, wheelwrights of Stourport on 31st August 1910.

2. Wilfred Harry Beaman was the eldest child of William Henry Beaman and his wife Annie Elizabeth Beaman nee Oakley. He was baptised at St Martin’s Church, Holt on Sunday 27th October 1895. William and Annie met through their employment at Holt Castle where he was a groom and she was a domestic servant. After they married the couple lived at the School House, moving to Abberley in 1908. At thirteen years of age, Wilfred had finished school and was apprenticed as a Wheelwright. His siblings, Elsie, Doris, Arthur and Frank were registered for admission to Abberley Parochial School on Friday 20th November 1908, having previously been attending school at Astley.

During the last few months of 1916, the 3rd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment was passing a fairly peaceful time in Flanders. Between 25th November and 1st December two men were killed and four were wounded, one of whom was Wilfred Beaman, who died from his wounds on 30th November.

3. The following report appears in the Kidderminster Times, 16th December 1916:
Private Wilfred Beaman, 27172, 3rd Battalion Worcestershire Regiment. Mr and Mrs Beaman of Abberley have received official notice of the death of their eldest son, Wilfred, aged 21. He died of internal wounds caused by shrapnel, at a casualty clearing station “somewhere in France”, on 26th November. The deceased enlisted in the 3rd Worcesters in January and was sent on a draft to France in July. He received a slight wound in the arm in September, but soon recovered and returned to the trenches, where he spent altogether about four months. Previous to enlisting he was serving as an apprentice at Messrs. Fathers and Sons, Stouport. This makes the fifth Abberley soldiers’ death this year. A photograph will appear next week.

4. A photograph of Private W. Beaman of Abberley can be found in Berrow’s Worcester Journal Supplement, Saturday 23rd December 1916, available at Worcestershire Archives.