Frank Reginald Beck was born in Oxwick, Norfolk on 3 May 1861. He was the son of Edmund Beck, land agent to the Royal Family at Sandringham. Frank inherited his father’s position as land agent on Queen Victoria’s estate in 1891. He was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order (MVO) in 1901 and created a Knight of the Order of St Olav by the King of Norway in 1906. He reached the rank of captain on 19 May 1906. Frank Beck was married in 1891 to Mary Wilson, and had five daughters.
Captain Beck achieved fame when he led the ill-fated attack on a Turkish position at Anafarta during the British invasion of Gallipoli. He had raised a company of men to serve in the 5th Battalion, The Norfolk Regiment. They were designated as E Company but known as the Sandringham Company as they were all members of the household staff. The fate of this company was transformed into legend when witnesses reported that they had disappeared into a static cloud on the mountain. The colonel of the battalion, Sir Horace Proctor-Beauchamp, accompanied the ‘Sandringhams' and shared their fate. The date of the attack was 12 August 1915.
Queen Alexandra, the widow of King Edward VII, was determined to find out what happened to the company and after the war a search of the area revealed 180 bodies scattered over an area 800 yards beyond the Turkish front line. Captain Beck’s body was not identified but his watch was recovered from a Turkish officer.
In 1999 a film called ‘All the King’s Men’ was shown on BBC tv starring David Jason as Captain Beck and Maggie Smith as Queen Alexandra. The photo shows the real Captain Beck in a scarlet dress tunic with yellow facings and a dark blue forage cap that has the Britannia badge of the Norfolk Regiment. He was 54 years old when he went off to War.
Regimental Details | Commanding Officers
