My Great Great Grandfather - Francis Beale

By Manaia Woodbury

Introduction

Francis Beale was my Great Great Grandfather. He took part in WW1 and WW2. My Grandad knew him untill he turned six, thats when my Grandad, Nana and Great Aunt left Britain and moved to Aotearoa.

Early Life

Francis joined the Royal Navy at the age 18. My Great Great Great Grandfather was a Master Mariner, the best in the Navy rankings. When Francis first joined the Royal Navy he started out as an ordinary Seaman and slowly worked his way up to being ranked a Lieutenant. A Lieutenant is someone that would be a substitute acting for a superior, by taking on their duties for a bit.

Francis Beale was born in 1885. In 1885 William Ewart Gladstone was Prime Minister of The United Kingdom and the Queen of England and Ireland was Queen Victoria. For children in the late 1800s you were ether labelled as rich or poor. For the rich toys were no problem but for the poor, many children had to make their own toys like ragdolls or bought very cheap toys. I do not know if my Great Great Grandad was rich or poor.

Contributions to family and community

What's amazing is that Francis didn’t just take part in World War One but he participated in World War Two as well. In August 1914 Great Britain there were 29 capital ships which were ready for war and 13 were still undergoing construction. While Germany had 18 ready and 9 undergoing construction - they were two of the greatest sea rivals. The Royal Navy was the largest Navy in the world, Germany tried to make a navy that would match R.N but the R.N were too large and ended up winning over Germany. The reason that Britain was said to be the ‘best’ Navy was because they were more equipped and organised thaxn the people they were up against.

In 1935 when World War Two had just started Francis was called to go back to the Royal Navy. At the beginning of World War 2, the Royal Navy was the strongest navy in the world. Brittain had the largest number of warships built and with naval bases across the globe. It had over 15 battleships and battlecruisers, 7 aircraft carriers, 66 cruisers, 164 destroyers and 66 submarines. They didn’t just have the upper hand in equipment they also had many many sailor to do there work. Queen Elizabeth ll ran the royal navy.

Conclusion

Francis brought a house in westbourne ave emsworth for $500.00 which is $1000.00 NZ dollars .Francis Beale lead a amazing life being in world war one and world war two. He is the reason im alive today if he hadn’t survived world war one he would have never been able to give birth to my great grandad and so on. He showed resilience in the war and pulled through.

Links

https://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/application/files/1414/5579/2208/what-was-life-for-children-victorian-London.pdf

https://www.britannica.com/event/World-War-I/The-war-at-sea-1914-15