Colonel Sir Frank Beachim Beauchamp, 1st Baronet

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(born

Mells, Somerset Mells is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, near the town of Frome. Vobster The parish includes the village of Vobster, which had a coal mine of the same name on the Somerset coalfield and a quarry, both of which are now disused. ...

1866, died

Worthing Worthing ( ) is a seaside town and borough in West Sussex, England, at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of Chichester. With a population of 113,094 and an area of , the borough is the second largest component of the Br ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

, 17 June 1950) was an

industrialist A business magnate, also known as an industrialist or tycoon, is a person who is a powerful entrepreneur and investor who controls, through personal enterprise ownership or a dominant shareholding position, a firm or industry whose goods or ser ...

who owned mines in the

Somerset coalfield The Somerset Coalfield in northern Somerset, England is an area where coal was mined from the 15th century until 1973. It is part of a larger coalfield which stretched into southern Gloucestershire. The Somerset coalfield stretched from Cromh ...

, notably in

Midsomer Norton Midsomer Norton is a town near the Mendip Hills in Bath and North East Somerset, England, south-west of Bath, Somerset, Bath, north-east of Wells, Somerset, Wells, north-west of Frome, west of Trowbridge and south-east of Bristol. It has ...

and

Radstock Radstock is a town and civil parish on the northern slope of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England, about south-west of Bath and north-west of Frome. It is within the area of the unitary authority of Bath and North East Somerset. The Radsto ...

. He was the first baronet of the Beauchamp Baronetcy of Woodborough, in the County of Somerset, created for him in 1918. He was also a

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

county councillor for thirty-nine years.

Early and personal life

He was born in 1866 in

where he was educated privately. He grew up at Norton Hall (formerly Norton Down House), a now-demolished

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word ''manse'' originally defined a property l ...

. His father, also involved in coalmines, was William Beauchamp, and his sister Rose was the sister-in-law of the composer and music administrator Sir Reginald Thatcher. In 1897 he married Mabel Constance Bannon whose photographic portrait is part of the Lafayette Negative Archive at the

Victoria & Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...

in London. They had four children including Sir Douglas Clifford Beauchamp, the second and last Beauchamp baronet, and Irene Mabel.

Adult life and career

He was a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

, a Conservative member of

Somerset County Council Somerset ( , ), archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to ...

from 1907 to 1946 and a Parliamentary candidate in 1910. In May 1915 he joined the army and after eighteen months in Britain he went to the US in an advisory capacity to the War Department in

Washington D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

He reached the rank of colonel and was created a baronet in 1918 and appointed a

in 1919. Sir Frank's business interests were centred on

and

where he owned a number of collieries, a coal distribution business, a wagon works and a gasworks. He was a partner with his brother Louis in the Norton Hill colliery in

, chairman of the East Bristol colliery company and director of the Somerset colliery company. He lived at Woodborough House, a now-demolished

between

Peasedown St John Peasedown St John (commonly referred to as Peasedown) is a large village and civil parish in Somerset, England, standing on a hilltop roughly south-southwest of the city of Bath, and north-east of the town of Radstock at the foot of the Mend ...

and

Somerset Somerset ( , ), Archaism, archaically Somersetshire ( , , ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel, Gloucestershire, and Bristol to the north, Wiltshire to the east ...

Later life and death

Due to ill health he spent his final years in

, where he died on 17 June 1950. He is buried in the churchyard of St Peter's Church,

Camerton, Somerset Camerton is a village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish in Somerset, south west of Bath, Somerset, Bath, lying on the Cam Brook, Somerset, Cam Brook. The parish has a population of 655. History The parish includes the hamlet of Tu ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beauchamp, Frank 1886 births 1950 deaths People from Midsomer Norton People from Somerset Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom English industrialists Somerset coalfield Councillors in Somerset People of the Victorian era Frank 20th-century English businesspeople Commanders of the Order of the British Empire