Our latest personal photo album belonged to World War One pilot Harold Beamish, and includes some striking images from the final days of the conflict.
Harold Beamish was born in Hastings, in the North Island of New Zealand. He grew up on a farm and was still at school when war broke out in 1914. He left school to learn to fly at the New Zealand Flying School in Auckland. He failed the entry medical examination but, undeterred, made his own way to England where he passed a second medical examination and joined the Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS).
In 1917 he was posted to No. 3 Squadron RNAS, flying Sopwith Pup fighter aircraft, where he was quickly nick-named ‘Kiwi’ by his mainly Canadian fellow-pilots.
Beamish was credited with six enemy aircraft destroyed or forced down out of control with another five shared. When the RNAS was combined with the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) into the Royal Air Force (RAF) in April 1918, No. 3 Squadron became No. 203 Squadron, by this time flying the more powerful Sopwith Camel fighter aircraft. Beamish’s aircraft was personalised with a green fern and ‘NZ’ painted on the top of his fuselage, just behind the cockpit.
Three ground crew pose with No. 3 Squadron, RNAS, Camel N6377. Unknown location.
Beamish claimed two victories and two shared victories in this aircraft. Image: ALB942099022
He came back to New Zealand in August 1918 for a rest and while at home the War ended. He returned to farming on the family farm at Whanawhana in Hawkes Bay and retired to Hastings where he died in 1986 at the age of 90.
Small but perfectly formed, Beamish’s photo album records his time flying with No. 3, then No. 203 Squadron in the last years of World War One. There are also some photographs relating to the New Zealand Army which are believed to be related to the service of Beamish’s older brother, Captain George Eric Hamilton Beamish OBE, who was wounded at Gallipoli in 1915.
The album is available at https://fotoweb.airforcemuseum.co.nz/fotoweb/archives/5020-Harold-Beamish-personal-album/
