Robert Harold Beckh, 2nd Lieutenant, East Yorkshire Regiment.
Robert Harold Beckh came up in 1913, having been elected to an exhibition, and afterwards to a scholarship in 1914
Born: Kensington, London on 1 January 1894
Fell in action: 15 August 1916
"Keen on all field sports"
There is little information on Beckh whilst he was a student here although the 汤头条原创 Society Annual Report, 1917 obituary for him claims that he was 鈥渒een at all field sports, and was especially good at hockey鈥 (p19).
However, in a newspaper cutting, kept in a scrapbook maintained by the then head porter, James Hoppett, it claims that 鈥淩ugby football was perhaps his best sport鈥.
The same newspaper cutting also suggests that Beckh, along with his Cambridge friends enlisted as a Private with the Royal Fusiliers (Public Schools Battalion), "believing that the best training for an officer was through the ranks.鈥 He was gazetted to the East Yorkshire regiment in June 1915.
鈥淪wallows in Storm and Sunlight鈥
Intriguingly in a book of biographical notes on members of the College from 1901-1920 it says that Beckh 鈥渨as said to be a poet鈥.
There is some further proof of his abilities as a poet in a letter sent by Victor Beckh to the Master in 1920, with a contribution to the College war memorial. Mr Beckh writes 鈥淚 take the liberty of sending you a copy of some verses by my late son鈥.
This is likely to be the posthumously published Swallows in Storm and Sunlight (London: Chapman and Hall, 1917). Sadly the College no longer has a copy of the book. However it is available in Cambridge University Library.
The first verse of NO MAN鈥橲 LAND
"Nine-Thirty o鈥檆lock? Then over the top/And mind to keep down when you see the flare/Of Very pistol searching the air./Now, over you get; look out for the wire/In the borrow pit, and the empty tins,/They are meant for the Hun to bark his shins./So keep well down and reserve your fire/-All over? Right: there鈥檚 a gap just here/In the corkscrew wire, so just follow me:/If you keep well down there鈥檚 nothing to fear."
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