Surgeon Rear-Admiral Charles Marsh Beadnell (17 February 1872 – 27 September 1947), best known as C. Marsh Beadnell, was a British surgeon and

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

officer.Anonymous. (1947)
"Surgeon Rear-Admiral C. M. Beadnell, C.B."
''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans ar ...

'' 160: 598-598. BEADNELL, C

Beadnell was born in

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi ( or ; Urdu, ) is a city in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is the fourth largest city in Pakistan after Karachi, Lahore and Faisalabad, and third largest in Punjab after Lahore and Faisalabad. Rawalpindi is next to Pakistan's ...

. He was educated at

Cheltenham College ("Work Conquers All") , established = , closed = , type = Public school Independent SchoolDay and Boarding School , religion = Church of England , president = , head_label = Head , head = Nicola Huggett ...

and studied medicine at

Guy's Hospital Guy's Hospital is an NHS hospital in the borough of Southwark in central London. It is part of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust and one of the institutions that comprise the King's Health Partners, an academic health science cent ...

. He was a Fellow of the

Chemical Society The Chemical Society was a scientific society formed in 1841 (then named the Chemical Society of London) by 77 scientists as a result of increased interest in scientific matters. Chemist Robert Warington was the driving force behind its creation. ...

and of the

Royal Anthropological Institute The Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland (RAI) is a long-established anthropological organisation, and Learned Society, with a global membership. Its remit includes all the component fields of anthropology, such as biolo ...

. A rationalist and

sceptic Skepticism, also spelled scepticism, is a questioning attitude or doubt toward knowledge claims that are seen as mere belief or dogma. For example, if a person is skeptical about claims made by their government about an ongoing war then the pe ...

, he was president of the

Rationalist Press Association The Rationalist Association, originally the Rationalist Press Association, is an organization in the United Kingdom, founded in 1885 by a group of freethinkers who were unhappy with the increasingly political and decreasingly intellectual teno ...

(1940–1947). Beadnell described himself as a "devout

agnostic Agnosticism is the view or belief that the existence of God, of the divine or the supernatural is unknown or unknowable. (page 56 in 1967 edition) Another definition provided is the view that "human reason is incapable of providing sufficie ...

".Anonymous. (1947)
"C. M. BEADNELL, C.B., M.R.C.S., L.R.C.P."
''

British Medical Journal ''The BMJ'' is a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal, published by the trade union the British Medical Association (BMA). ''The BMJ'' has editorial freedom from the BMA. It is one of the world's oldest general medical journals. Origin ...

'' 2 (4527): 591-592. He died in

Petersfield, Hampshire Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth a ...

Selected publications

''The Reality or Unreality of Spiritualistic Phenomena: Being a Criticism of Dr. W.J. Crawford's Investigation into Levitations and Raps''
(1920) * ''A Picture Book of Evolution: Adapted from the Work of the Late Dennis Hird'' (1932) * ''Fireside Science'' (1934) ith Ray Lankester">Ray_Lankester.html" ;"title="ith Ray Lankester">ith Ray Lankester
''Dictionary of Scientific Terms, as Used in the Various Sciences''
(1938) * ''The Origin of the Kiss and Other Scientific Diversions'' (1942) * ''An Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Science and War'' (1943)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beadnell. C. Marsh 1872 births 1947 deaths British agnostics British sceptics Critics of parapsychology People educated at Cheltenham College Rationalists