W R Beddington CBE

William Richard Beddington was born in 1893 the son of Gerald Beddington CBE of Crondall, Hants. He joined the Queen's Bays as a 2nd Lieutenant while they were in France at some time in 1916-17. On 11 April 1917 he was wounded in a mounted action in the Arras area. He and several others were casualties in an abortive attempt to seize Greenland Hill near Fampoux. They lost 4 men and 17 horses killed in this attack. He survived the war and rose to the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel to take command of the Bays on 2 Jan 1939, by which time the regiment was mechanised. However his command only lasted 10 months as he was given a staff post on 2 Nov 1939. The photo shows him in blue no.1 dress in 1939.
Beddington had qualified as a 1st Class interpreter in French in 1921. He retired from the army after the Second World War as a major-general and on 22 May 1946 married Elizabeth Rees Fison daughter of Sir William Fison 3rd Bt. He wrote the regimental history: A History of the Queen's Bays (2nd Dragoon Guards) 1929 - 1945. He could have included the period covering the First World War, in which he served, but the official history of the regiment by Whyte and Atteridge ended (A History of the Queen's Bays, 1685 - 1929) at 1929 and he regarded his book as a continuation. He also, in 1946-7, served as chairman of the Committee on Manpower in Ordnance Installations in the UK. His report was a thorough examination of the processes and methods used by the RAOC. He and his wife Elizabeth had two sons, Rupert and Guy who were born in 1947 and 1949. They were educated at Eton, but Rupert died at the age of 18. Major-General Beddington died in 1975 at the age of 82.

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