Medical Officers
Of the Malta Garrison
Walter Calverley Beevor
1858 – 1927

Colonel Walter Calverley Beevor was the son of Mr John Beevor MP of Newark-on-Trent. He was educated at Edinburgh where he graduated MB in 1880, taking the MRCS the same year. He was House Surgeon at the Royal Portsmouth Hospital, the Newark-on-Trent hospital and the Midland Counties Eye Infirmary.

On 4 February 1884, he passed the competitive examination held in London for entry into the Army Medical Department. Twenty candidates were successful. Gentleman W C Beevor was placed fourth with 2300 marks. The highest mark of 2440 was scored by Gentleman John Richard Barefoot; the lowest mark of 1920 was that of Gentleman Isaac Radcliffe Lane who died of wounds sustained in the Sudan on 21 March 1885.

Gentleman W C Beevor was commissioned surgeon on 2 August 1884 and was appointed to the Scots Guards on 28 November 1885. He transferred to the Grenadier Guards on 26 June 1897, to the Coldstream Guards on 14 September 1898 and again to the Scots Guards on 9 November 1898. On 25 May 1904, he reverted to the RAMC as a Major and became Lieutenant Colonel on 2 August 1904.

Surgeon Captain W C Beevor served with the Sudan Expedition of 1885 at Suakin, the Ashanti Expedition of 1895–1896 and the operations on the North West Frontier of India 1897 with the Tirah Expeditionary Force, when he was mentioned in dispatches (London Gazette 5 April 1898). He received the Egyptian medal with clasp and Khedive's Bronze star, Frontier Medal with two clasps. On 25 March 1896, he received special promotion to Surgeon Major for his role on the Ashanti Expedition.

Surgeon Captain W C Beevor was mentioned in General Sir William Lockhart's dispatch to the Government of India while serving with the 2nd Division (Regimental) on the Tirah Expeditionary Force. Sir William said that: all ranks, officers and men alike, have been subjected to great hardship, harassed at night by assaults at close quarters or by distant rifle fire, and engaged in long and trying rearguard actions. Their duties on picket and in guarding foraging parties have been specially onerous. Hardly a day or night has passed without casualties, and whether we advanced or retired, every soldier had to be constantly on the alert against enemies who made no stand in the open, but were unrivalled as skirmishers and marksmen. The march to Kumassi proved terribly trying. All looked haggard and pale, even those who had escaped an attack of fever. Coming straight from Aden, the men felt the effects of the climate greatly. Nevertheless, they struggled bravely on, carrying seventy rounds of ammunition in addition to their marching kit.

The officers of the Army Medical Staff and of the Indian Medical Service have fully maintained their high reputation by their attention to the sick and wounded, both under fire and in hospital. Surgeon Captain W C Beevor Scots Guards, bestowed the greatest care on the men of the composite battalion, and was untiring in his efforts to prevent sickness.¹

During the Tirah Expedition of 1897–1898, Surgeon Captain W C Beevor took and used an X ray apparatus. On 20 May 1898, he gave a talk to the Royal United Service Institution on the employment of the Roentgen rays during the operations on the frontier of India. He remarked that all apparatus for military work had to be robust to withstand the very rough conditions of actual warfare in mountainous countries and easily assembled for ease of packing and repairs. The apparatus used consisted of a 10 inch spark coil, a primary battery, three tubes, a screen, and some Paget photographic plates.

Surgeon Major Beevor demonstrated a compact and portable wooden box, into which a serviceable folding tube holder and a screen could be packed. He also showed a vulcanite box with a handle to take a Crookes's tube, to which insulated electrodes could be attached. This could be freely moved about and placed in any position necessary for the examination of the patient with the screen. He contended that it was the duty of every civilised nation to supply apparatus for the Roentgen rays not only at base hospitals, but also at every point where soldiers were fighting and exposing themselves to injury in the performance of their hazardous duties.²

Surgeon Major Beevor was in the South African War of 1899–1902 where he was mentioned in dispatches (London Gazette 10 September 1901). He was present in the advance on Kimberley, the action at Belmont, Enslin, Modder River, and Magersfontein, operations in Orange Free State, action at Poplar Grove, Dreifontein, Vet River, and Zand River, operations in Transvaal, actions at Pretoria, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, and Belfast. He was created CMG and received the Queen's Medal with six clasps and the King's Medal with two Clasps. From January 1901 to May 1902, he was seconded for service with the South African Constabulary; he was on the staff of the Duke of Connaught at Lord Curzon's Delhi Durbar in 1902, and also on the staff of Lord Northcote Governor of Bombay in 1903.

Surgeon Major Walter Calverley Beevor retired on 20 August 1913. When on the retired list he was appointed DADMS North Midland Division Territorial Force and became Temporary Colonel TF on appointment as ADMS on 3 December 1914. He served throughout the War of 1914–19 when he was mentioned in dispatches (London Gazette of 1 January 1916 and 20 May 1917) and was made a Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath (CB) in 1916. He died in London on 6 February 1927.