THE Old Contemptibles’ standard was paraded for the first time for many years at the Remembrance Day ceremony in St Giles, Oxford.

Its appearance was the result of efforts by Ann Heath, whose father, Charles Beeks, was chairman of the Contemptibles’ Oxford branch.

Oxford Mail:

The plaque at Oxford Town Hall, presented by the Oxford branch of the Old Contemptibles to the city in 1964 to mark the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of war 

Mrs Heath, of Morton Close, Kidlington, thought it would be appropriate to have the standard on public display to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War.

Her first task was to find it – she eventually discovered it had been laid up, possibly in the 1970s, at the City Church of St Michael at the Northgate in Cornmarket Street.

Memory Lane this week

The Priest-in-Charge and City Rector, the Very Rev Robert Wilkes, arranged for it to be held by Cadet Warrant Officer James Taylor, of Didcot Air Training Corps, during the service and wreath-laying at last Sunday’s service.

Mrs Heath said she was delighted to see the standard on display again.

At least two other memorials to the Old Contemptibles exist. A plaque in the foyer at Oxford Town Hall was presented to the city by the Oxford branch in 1964, marking the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War, and a signboard, found at the Wheatsheaf pub in High Street, the branch headquarters, is now at the Soldiers of Oxfordshire Museum at Woodstock.

As we recalled (Memory Lane, October 13), the Old Contemptibles got their name from a disparaging remark by the German Kaiser, Wilhelm II.

He is said to be have dismissed the British Expeditionary Force which faced the Germans in the early months of the war as a “contemptible little army”.

Oxford Mail:

Charles Beeks

After the war, survivors of the force took the Kaiser’s words and formed the Old Contemptibles Association. At one time, it had 178 branches in the UK and 14 overseas and members were known as ‘chums’.

Mr Beeks was a member of the King’s Shropshire Light Infantry before switching to the Royal Flying Corps.

In his war diary, he wrote: “I have now flown more than 100 hours over enemy lines and not been wounded yet, although have had many narrow escapes. The machine has been hit many times, flying through a haze of bursting shells.”

He won the Distinguished Flying Medal for his heroism as well as the Mons Star and King Albert’s Belgian Cross.

In civilian life, he was manager of the London and Birmingham Furnishing Company in Cowley Road, Oxford, and later furnishing manager of Geddes, in George Street. He served in the Home Guard during the Second World War.

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