De Ruvigny Roll of Honour Vol 2 page 23
George Tait Beaton was born on the 24th September 1895 at Milnathort, Kinross. He was the eldest son of Walter Henderson Beaton, of 4 Akenside Terrace, Jesmond, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, District Manager, North of England Agency, Edinburgh United Breweries Ltd, and his wife Mary Annettie Gosman, daughter of the late Edward Groves, Merchant, Edinburgh.
He was educated at West Jesmond Council School and then Rutherford College, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where he passed his Boys Clerks' Exam for the Civil Service on the 19th May 1911. George entered H.M. Office of Works at Whitehall on the 26th June.
Whilst there his head of department recommended him to London City and Midland Bank and was moved to Head Office at the bank on the 1st April 1912. Then was transferred to the Newcastle-on-Tyne branch on the 30th September.
He volunteered and enlisted on the 9th August 1914, in the 1st Northumbrian Brigade, Royal Field Artillery. Left for France with his Brigade on the 16th April 1915.
He was in the firing line for six months, and was killed near Armentieres on the 6th October 1915, shot by a sniper while acting as Telephonist in the first-line Trenches.
He had been complimented by his officers for smart and intelligent work, and his Colonel wrote:- "He is a very great loss to us, and much beloved by his officers and the rest of his battery, and we had decided to recommend him for a commission."
His Major:- "He was one of the few whom I always felt I could entirely trust in the performance of his very important duties; he would have been a most valuable soldier and a good officer."
His Section Commander also wrote:- "It was impossible not to notice him from amongst the other men. The first day I went to the trenches he was a great help to me, and always afterwards he was the same. He was so intelligent, and obliging and straight, and altogether a fine fellow; his death has been a great loss to us all. I can easily tell how much he was liked by what I hear our men say, and it has cast a gloom over the battery. We all had a great affection for him."
De Ruvigny Roll of Honour
He is remembered in Gateshead G39.06, Jesmond J1.08 J1.21 and Newcastle on NUT049, NUT070 and NUT126
