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David Southon Beasley. Died 18 December 1914
David Southon Beasley was the only child of Thomas Henry and Sarah Anne Beasley. His parents married in 1891 in St Pancras, London and David was born in 1893 in the same area. The family must have moved to Berkshire shortly afterwards as they were living in Swallowfield by 1901 and in 1911 they lived at 20 Wescott Road, Wokingham. Thomas was by then a police pensioner so perhaps his career was the cause of the moves. By 1911 they had been joined by a grandson ( John Beasley Fagan) aged 3 though David had not married. David was working as a cabinet maker at this time so we must assume that his parents (Thomas by now 76 and Sarah now 59) were helping to raise John.
David joined the Scots Guards, 2nd Battalion, in London, though we do not know when. The Scots Guards took part in various attacks in the Armentieres area in the Autumn and winter of 1914 http://www.1914-1918.net/truce.htm It seems likely that David was killed or mortally wounded in one of these attacks and on 18th December 1914 he died. He is buried at Ration Farm Cemetery. This cemetery was not started until after David’s death so he may have been buried elsewhere and his body laid to rest here later in the war or indeed after it . David is one of the few of those commemorated on our memorial who left children behind them.