Beckwith

 
Location:  Lanark County     N 45.11767     W -76.08577
In Beckwith Park, on the 9th Line, south of Carleton Place.
 

The rural community of Beckwith Township sits on the south edge of the larger town of Carleton Place.  There has been pressure over the years to combine the Remembrance Day ceremonies with that of the larger town, but Beckwith citizens are proud of their history and their cenotaph.  Today the small black granite cenotaph is part of a large recreation complex with sports fields and an arena.
The memorial was installed in 1920, and the people named on this stone came from Beckwith, a fact the locals would like to celebrate and remember.  This is the third location for the memorial, featuring nine names from the First World War and three names from the Second World War.  The rural community here knows these names as many of the families still live and farm in the area and they want to honour those names here in Beckwith.

All of the heroes behind these names had incredible stories and sad deaths, but one name that stuck out to me was that of Nursing Sister Jessie M McDiarmid, one of fourteen nurses who drowned when the Red Cross ship Llandovery Castle was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat as it approached the coast of Ireland.  The incident was one of the most horrific events of a war filled with horror.  The U-boat captain claimed he believed the ship was carrying American officers and ammunition, although it was clearly marked as a Red Cross vessel.  After realizing his mistake, the captain tried to cover his mistake by ramming and firing on the lifeboats.  One lifeboat with twenty-four witnesses escaped to tell the story.  Some of the German U-boat officers where later found guilty of the incident as a war crime.  The Captain was never caught or tried for the crime.  More information one this incident can be found here:  https://legionmagazine.com/en/2019/06/the-sinking-of-the-llandovery-castle/
 

***Thank you to Louise Bellec for the photography.


 
Marker text:
Side 1:
IN MEMORIAM
PTE. DAVID McLAREN
87 BATT.  DIED OF WOUNDS
NOV. 1 1916

DVR. HAROLD DOWDALL
DIV. AMN. COL M. KILLED
NOV. 9 1917

PTE. HUGH McMILLAN
240 BATT.  KILLED IN ACTION
AUG. 30  1918

PTE ROBERT BORELAND
130 BATT.  KILLED IN ACTION
APR. 24 1915
 




Side 2:
IN MEMORIAM
NURSING SISTER
JESSE M. McDIARMID
DROWNED JUNE 27, 1918
BY GERMAN SUBMARINE

PTE. ANDREW T. HUGHTON
SIBERIAN EXPEDITION
DIED ENROUTE OCT. 29 1918

PTE. JERRY P. O'SHEA
80 BATT.  KILLED IN ACTION
APR. 9 1917

1914 - 1918




Side 3:
ALSO PRIVATE
CECIL SMITH
C.E.F. KILLED
JULY 3, 1918

PTE. ARTHUR OFFICER
C.E.F. KILLED
JUNE 17, 1916
 




Side 4:
IN MEMORIAM
FLIGHT SGT.
E. EARL RATHWELL
KILLED IN ENGLAND
JUNE 22, 1942

PTE. E. EARL PORTEOUS
KILLED IN FRANCE
AUGUST 1, 1944

PTE. THOMAS B. HOPE
KILLED IN ITALY
DECEMBER 1944

1939 - 1945