There is also a dedication in All Saints Church to Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Beer of the Royal Berkshire Regiment, the second son of William Anning and Louisa Beer of Willsworthy, Kenton. A veteran of the South African Campaign, where he served with the 27th Company, Imperial Yeomanry, he later obtained a commission in the Sussex Yeomanry at the outbreak of the Great War. In April 1915 he arrived in France as an officer with the Bengal Lancers, before returning to England and rejoining the Sussex Yeomanry. By March 1916 he had been appointed second-in-command of a battalion of the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, attached to the Royal Berkshires, and only weeks before his death was given command of the unit.
On 19 July 1916, at Laventie in France, Lieutenant-Colonel Beer was killed in action at the age of 37. His memorial plaque in Kenton records both his Boer War service and his final sacrifice in the Great War. Interestingly, it notes his arrival in France with the Bengal Lancers, a reminder of the global reach of British and imperial forces. His death as officer commanding his battalion illustrates vividly that officers did not sit safely behind the lines, but shared the same dangers as the men they led. In this, his story embodies both the traditions of his class and the cost borne by families in every Devon parish.
