William Charles Bullock Beech, service no : 1066

Enlisted on 24 September 1914, 5 years Strophshire Regiment 2 years Boer War

Beech who was born in England, immigrated to Australia and settled in Condobolin in c1910. Prior to this he served in the “Staving Eight” during the South Africa Boer War and was awarded the English King and Queen medals. His military experience followed 5 years in the Shropshire Yeomanry Cavalry.

In 1914. aged 36, he enlisted as no 1066, C Company, 2nd Battalion, Australian Imperial Forces – known as the ‘Condobolin Die Hards’ – a separate and purely voluntary army. Amongst the first landing at Gallipoli on 25th April 1915, Beech was assigned to the dangerous ‘Quinn’s Post’ which was only 500 metres from the Turkish snipers.

Within 12 days Beech was promoted to Lance Corporal after he invented a Trench Periscope Rifle prototype, which enabled soldiers to be protected from enemy fire by being able to fire from within the protection of the trenches. As chief-of-staff of the Australian Corps, Brigadier General Blamey, upgraded Beech to Sargent and seconded him to Divisional Headquarters on 1st June 1915 to run a make-shift Trench Periscope Factory. When Beech was invalided back to Australia, Lieutenant General Birdwood the British commander of the entire Dardanelles forces – wrote that over “2,000 periscopes were made on the ANZAC Cove Beach”.

Returning to Condobolin, Beech became a recruitment officer until 1919.

Courtesy of the Condobolin and District Historical Society Facebook Page. Image Credit: Condobolin and District Historical Museum Facebook Page.