English Chess Forum

While trawling throught the archives of The Ilustrated London News I came across the following game and wondered about the identity of A. E. Beamish.

[Event "City of London C.C. Championship"] [Site "London"] [Date "1911.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Beamish, A. E."] [Black "Wainwright, George Edward"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "C26"] 1.e4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4 3.Bc4 Nf6 4.d3 d6 5.f4 Be6 6.Bxe6 fxe6 7.fxe5 dxe5 8.Nf3 Nc6 9.O-O Bc5+ 10.Kh1 a6 11.Qe2 O-O 12.Be3 Nd4 13.Bxd4 exd4 14.Nd1 Nh5 15.Nf2 Nf4 16.Qd2 Qe8 17.e5 Qh5 18.Ne4 Ba7 19.Nfg5 Ng6 20.Rxf8+ Nxf8 21.Rf1 h6 22.Nf3 Nd7 23.Qb4 b5 24.Qe7 Qe8 25.Qh4 Qf7 26.Rf2 Qe8 27.g4 Nc5 28.g5 Nxe4 29.Qxe4 Rd8 30.gxh6 Qh5 31.hxg7 Rd5 32.Rg2 Bc5 33.Qg4 Qh6 34.Qg6 1-0

Chess sources give an A. E. (sometimes just A.) Beamish as a player for the City of London, Metropolitan and Hampstead teams in the years leading up to the outbreak of the First World War - but never give his first names in full. His EDO page http://www.edochess.ca/players/p4732.html does not even have his dates of birth and death. However census and telephone records show another A. E. Beamish resident in London (including Hampstead) during this period. Step forward Alfred Ernest Beamish (6 August 1879 – 28 February 1944), champion tennis player. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Beamish

Alfred Ernest Beamish was a Davis Cup winner, Olympic Bronze medallist, Grand Slam finallist and writer of several books on the game. But did he play chess? None of the chess references for A. E. that I have found mention tennis, nor do the tennis sources describe Alfred Ernest as a chess player. However if they are two people then there are a number of amazing coincidences.

A. E. Beamish the tennis player took part in the Great War, finishing with the rank of Captain. (American Lawn Tennis, Volume 13 p. 419) The B.C.M. of 1935 (p. 64) contains the following, 'In the Minor Capt. A.E. Beamish, the former City of London and Hampstead player, made a welcome reappearance in tournament chess, after twenty years of absence, and proved that he has not lost his old form.'

Was there a connection with that other tennis and chess expert Sir G. A. Thomas? Absolutely. They competed in the same tournaments including Wimbledon in 1920 and previously in 1913 at the Beckenham Championships Alfred Beamish defeated G A Thomas 6-3 6-3 3-6 7-5. However on the eve of the outbreak of the Great War Thomas lost to Beamish in the final of the Tunbridge Wells Tennis Tournament and they paired up to win the Men's Doubles. (The Courier, August 7, 1914).

Did A. E. Beamish and G. A. Thomas ever meet over the chessboard?

If anything clinches my suggestion that A. E. and Alfred Ernest are the same person, would a non-expert chess player ever use this analogy?

From Alfred Ernest Beamish's FIRST STEPS TO LAWN TENNIS p78

'Another very favourite scheme of tactics is that of offering an opponent an apparent advantage, which when taken by him brings immediate disaster with it. This type of tactics in the game of chess, known as a gambit, is well illustrated at Lawn Tennis by playing to an opponent's strong point in order to gain an advantage at a later stage in the rally.'

Brilliant piece of historical detective work there!

(BTW, why did/do people insist on using initials and not full names?)

(BTW, why did/do people insist on using initials and not full names?)

Because they are polite - and correct - by the standards of 100 years ago.

Using first names would be forward and inappropriately informal

http://www.robertdarlaston.co.uk/KingEdwardsSchool.htm

Andy Stoker wrote:(BTW, why did/do people insist on using initials and not full names?)

Because they are polite - and correct - by the standards of 100 years ago.

Using first names would be forward and inappropriately informal

http://www.robertdarlaston.co.uk/KingEdwardsSchool.htm

Thanks for that. (The section a short way down that page, named: 'Modes of address': “Call me Darlaston”.) The pictures brought back some memories, as I visited that KES site one weekend a few years back while on a tour of the Birmingham sites related to J. R. R. Tolkien. His name (and those of his school friends from the first decades of the 20th century) are on the name boards (the school was in the centre of Birmingham in their day). Sadly those of many of his school friends are also in the memorial chapel (also shown in that account, built in the 1950s after both world wars). Some fascinating pictures there, especially the one of the manned glider and RAF cadets!

All this has made me wonder how extensive the records are of chess in schools in the Victorian and Edwardian period and what their attitude to chess was back then? Presumably reports of school matches would have been written, with surnames and all?

In those days chess probably wasn't very different from cricket. There is an infamous story of when Fred Titmus walked out at Lords to play his first game for Middlesex he was accompanied by the P.A. system announcing a change to the printed programme. Where it read 'F. R. Titmus' it should have said 'Titmus, F.R.'

Don't however confuse amateur with unpaid. W. G, Grace was the highest paid sportsman of his day, but claimed amateur status because, being a doctor, he didn't need to play cricket to earn a living. Even so, because he carried on a trade or profession, aristocratic amateurs looked down on him.

As part of the class system, professionals ranked below the amateur gentlemen and could be addressed by their surnames - as would a servant or schoolboy. Amateurs would get a Mr. in front of a surname or a higher title to show suitable deference. To use first names would assume an uninvited intimacy unless it was something like 'Sir George'.

Gerard Killoran wrote:In those days chess probably wasn't very different from cricket. There is an infamous story of when Fred Titmus walked out at Lords to play his first game for Middlesex he was accompanied by the P.A. system announcing a change to the printed programme. Where it read 'F. R. Titmus' it should have said 'Titmus, F.R.'

Don't however confuse amateur with unpaid. W. G, Grace was the highest paid sportsman of his day, but claimed amateur status because, being a doctor, he didn't need to play cricket to earn a living. Even so, because he carried on a trade or profession, aristocratic amateurs looked down on him.

As part of the class system, professionals ranked below the amateur gentlemen and could be addressed by their surnames - as would a servant or schoolboy. Amateurs would get a Mr. in front of a surname or a higher title to show suitable deference. To use first names would assume an uninvited intimacy unless it was something like 'Sir George'.

The class system was still operating in the UK, until the First World War. Check out old Street Directories; you will find that the Gentry had their own Lists. The chess writer George Walker, always identified players by their surname. He probably picked up the habit from his Public School.

Gerard Killoran wrote:While trawling throught the archives of The Ilustrated London News I came across the following game and wondered about the identity of A. E. Beamish.

...
Chess sources give an A. E. (sometimes just A.) Beamish as a player for the City of London, Metropolitan and Hampstead teams in the years leading up to the outbreak of the First World War - but never give his first names in full.

Ingenious delving - but maybe you have the wrong man.
There was also in the 1911 census ARTHUR EDMUND BEAMISH (1883-1955), son of a Josiah Beamish, who could well fit the bill for the chess player. In the 1907-8 Ireland-Devon correspondence match, arranged by Mrs F. F. Rowland, Arthur E. Beamish beat Henry Erskine with Black in 19 moves. (Weekly Irish Times 6 June 1908)

Why, you may ask, would he play for Ireland? Well arrangements were fairly informal and it is possible he was related to the brewery family Beamish (who made a stout not dissimilar to Murphy's and Guinness.) Also A. E. Beamish was possibly a cousin of the well-known Cork (and sometime Gloucestershire) chess player F[rederick] U[niacke] Beamish who can be found near Bristol in the 1911 census.
F. U. Beamish, who was in that same Ireland-Devon match, played a lot of postal and OTB chess and was back in Cork by the outbreak of WW1. There he was arrested (briefly) as a spy when seen analysing on a pocket chess set in a park.

I am not ruling out that the sportsman was the chess player but somehow I doubt it.

Thanks Tim, I was having doubts too. Not just because that there could be two A. E. Beamishes, but that there existed an E. A. Beamish.

Arthur Edmund Beamish seems to have been better known as Edmund Arthur Beamish and is listed as such at http://www.thepeerage.com/p27151.htm#i271506, but did he switch between E. A. and A. E.? Did he switch initials to avoid confusion with the tennis player? If so, it didn't work.

Google book search reveals that Capt. Beamish, Capt. E. A. Beamish and E. A. Beamish make appearances in the BCM of 1945 and 1947, whereas A. E. Beamish. the tennis player died in 1944.

Bizarrely, the history of the West London Chess Club http://www.westlondonchess.com/node/35 records its 1944-45 Club Champion as Sir G. A. Thomas and in 1945-46 as winner of their Ralph Eastman Handicap Cup, none other than Capt. E. A. Beamish.

So Sir George Thomas played tennis with and against Capt. A. E. Beamish, but could have played chess with and against Capt. E. A. Beamish. Confused? I know I am. Was he?

As for the unfortunately initialed F. U. Beamish, Lasker's chess magazine Vol. 2 (May-Oct. 1905), has the following report...

'Mrs. Rowland states that a game has just been completed in the Crown correspondence tourney between Mr. Bale and F. U. Beamish. Mr. Bale scoring a victory after 230 moves. Patience, thy synonym is chess.'

Why isn't this in the record books? According to Tim Krabbe, this monster is exceeded only by the 269 moves of I. Nikolic - Arsovic ½-½ Belgrade 1989 and the 237 of Fressinet - Kosteniuk 0-1 Villandry 2007, rapid. I wonder does a score of Bale - Beamish exist?

Confusingly, it seems that Arthur Edmund Beamish and Edmund Arthur Beamish were different people.

Edmund Arthur Beamish was born in Richmond on 29 October 1880 (ancestry.co.uk has 1879, which seems to be a transcription error - the handwritten baptism entry had been crossed out). He was the son of Alfred and Selina Taylor Beamish and the younger brother of Alfred Ernest Beamish. Alfred senior was a barrister born in Ireland, so may have been connected to the Beamish stout family. In the 1911 census he had recently married Edith and was described as a late Lieutenant in the Imperial Yeomanry.

Arthur Edmund Beamish was born in Islington in the 4th quarter of 1883. His parents were Josiah Beamish, a solicitor born in Clerkenwell and Isabel Emily Beamish. In the 1911 census he was described as a traveller working in the office requisites business, presumably a travelling salesman.

Although both Josiah and Alfred senior were lawyers I can't find any direct connection.

The unfortunately initialled F U Beamish (the splendid Ferdinand rather than Frederick according to various records) was apparently a cousin of Alfred Ernest and Edmund Arthur. His father, also Ferdinand, was a brother of Alfred senior according to a family tree on ancestry.co.uk.

My guess at the moment (I'll post again if I find anything else) is that the original post was correct: the chess player and the tennis player were both Alfred Ernest. But I could well be wrong.

The Beamish and Crawford Brewery was founded in Cork 1792 by William Beamish and William Crawford.

Alfred senior and Ferdinand senior from my previous posts were sons of Charles Beamish (and had a half-sister who went by the politically incorrect name of Darkie or Darkey). Charles was the son of William Beamish (1760-1828) who, besides fathering 13 children if you believe thepeerage.com, not the most reliable of sources, led a very eventful life.

"He was in the service of the Royal Navy, exchanged into the Army. He fought in the American War of Independence, as the Adjutant of the 19th Regiment. He was a merchant at Cork, County Cork, Ireland. He was a Freeman of the City of Cork, County Cork, Ireland, in 1790. He lived at Beaumont House, Ballintemple, County Cork, Ireland."

He may or may not have been the William who co-founded the brewery.


Josiah is still a mystery at the moment. It seems his father died when he was very young. His mother, a schoolmistress, was widowed in the earliest record I can find, the 1851 census.

A couple of updates:

This newsletter...

http://www.westlondonchess.com/history/gazette_052.pdf

...shows that Sir George Thomas did indeed play on the same team as Capt. E. A. Beamish and against him in a club lightning tournament. This with playing against Capt. A. E. Beamish at tennis and with him as a doubles partner - in the same tournament - must make one of the oddest coincidences in sport.

This has proven me wrong, but in a good way.

Or has it? If Edmund Arthur and Alfred Ernest were brothers, (see also http://www.thepeerage.com/p27150.htm#i271500) then is it unlikely that they both played chess? Often one brother teaches another.

Perhaps this has all been a cunning plan by their father to give his sons names designed to confuse future historians and genealogists?

Edmund Arthur Beamish was a captain in the 1/18th Battalion London Regiment, serving in France in 1915.

Alfred Ernest Beamish was a 2nd lieutenant in the Royal Army Service Corps, serving in France in 1916.

So unless Alfred Ernest was promoted after the war references to Captain Beamish would probably be to Edmund Arthur.

They were both Captains. There are many contemporary references for A. E. holding the rank, including...

http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/28093489

The Sydney Morning Herald Tuesday 16 December 1919

DAVIS CUP.

BRITISH TEAM ARRIVES.

On the steamer Wahehe, which arrived yesterday from England, were tho members of the British Isles lawn tennis team, who will meet Australasia in tho challenge tie for the Davis Cup, and the International Lawn Tennis championship, which will be played in Sydney next month. The members of the team are Lieutenant-Colonel A. R. F. Kingscote, Major A. H. Lowe, and Captain A. E. Beamish.

Richard James wrote:
The unfortunately initialled F U Beamish (the splendid Ferdinand rather than Frederick according to various records) was apparently a cousin of Alfred Ernest and Edmund Arthur. His father, also Ferdinand, was a brother of Alfred senior according to a family tree on ancestry.co.uk.

Thanks for the correction and extra info. The 1911 Census image indeed shows his first name was Ferdinand. I was misled by Ancestry mistranscribing as Frederick. I have entered a comment asking them to correct it!

It's most unlikely the score of his marathon loss survives. I have read all Mrs Rowland's columns and other publications and of course a game of 230 moves is most unlikely to have fitted in a newspaper chess column. It's also rather unlikely to have been played by post, at least not in its entirety.

The Crown tournaments were organised by Frideswide Fanny Rowland. They were started in her column in Kingstown Society and in 1905 transferred to her little magazine The Four-Leaved Shamrock. That game is definitely not in FLS. There maybe some reference to it there; in 1905 she also had a column in the Weekly Irish Times which has now been digitised, though I slogged through it all on microfilm years ago!

I'm still unsure if E. A. Beamish was the only chess-playing brother given A. E.'s use of a chess metaphor in his book, and surely E. A. would have raised objections to his games attributed to A. E. Would you like to see a brother given credit for your achievements?

A little extra information about F. U.

From

http://kimsimmonds.net/ps03/ps03_136.htm

Name Ferdinand Uniacke BEAMISH , Spouse of 2C1R
Birth 9 Jun 1877, Cork, Cork, Ireland
Death 10 Mar 1957, Puha, Gisborne, New Zealand
Occupation Mechanical Engineer
Father Ferdinand BEAMISH (~1839-1920)
Mother Frances Anne STRICKLAND (~1847-1929)

Spouses
1 Madeline WEST, 2C1R
Birth 10 Jul 1897, Thaxsted, Essex, England
Death Nov 1984
Father Francis George WEST (1864-1900)
Mother Mary Kathleen CAPELL (1874-1950)
Marriage 17 Dec 1924
Annulment 1928

Notes for Ferdinand Uniacke BEAMISH

Ireland Births and Baptisms
June 9, 1877, Beamish [no given names], born Cork, Cork, Ireland, parents Ferdinand Beamish and Frances Anne Strickland Beamish.

In the 1901 census 3 Westbury Road, Westbury on Trym Gloucestershire. Head Frances A Beamish, married, age 54, husband away, born Bayswater London. Son Ferdinand N Beamish, single, age 23, Engineer (mechanical). born Ireland. Son Francis B. Beamish, age 18, Farm Pupil, born Ireland. Daughter Agnes O. Beamish, age 10, born Ireland. 2 servants.

In the 1911 census Dennisworth, Pucklechurch near Bristol, Gloucestershire. Head Ferdinand Beamish, age 72, private means, born Boulogne, France. Wife Frances Anne Beamish, age 64, married 35 years, 5 children born alive, all still living, born Paddington, London. Son Ferdinand Uniacke Beamish, age 33, single, farmer, employer, born Cork, Ireland. Son Francis Bernard Beamish, age 28, single, farmer, employer, born Queenstown, Ireland. Son Gerald Chohuley Beamish, Single, age 26, Oxford University student, born Queenstown. Daughter Agnes Olive Beamish, age 20, single, Girton College Student, born Cork. 1 servant. The house had 11 rooms.

Slogrove Slowgrove Family History Website indicated Ferdinand went to New Zealand in 1941.

In the New Zealand Electoral Rolls 1946 Gisborne, East Cape
Ferdinand Uniacke Beamish, Puha, dairy farmer

Headstone reads Taruheru Cemetery, Gisborne
Ferdinand Uniacke Beamish Born at Cork on 9th June 1877 died Puha Gisborne on 10th March 1957