Pupils mark time on local hero watch find
Pupils of Kinlochbervie High School have taken a keen interest in the life history of a war hero and Vancouver Police Constable Robert McBeath who was killed in the line of duty in Vancouver in 1922.
Originally a native of Kinlochbervie, Mr Mc Beath’s 95 year old gold watch was recently donated to the Vancouver Police Department.
A school project undertaken by Kinlochbervie High pupils has attracted national news interest about their research on Robert McBeath VC that they started in 2009. The school undertook a lot of research on their local hero, built a cairn and information board and then travelled to Vancouver as guests of the Vancouver Police Department in June 2010. Last week the school received news from Canada that the watch belonging to McBeath had been found.
The story goes that an off-duty Vancouver police officer was having a drink at a local pub recently when he overheard a conversation about an antique watch that once belonged to Vancouver Police Constable Robert McBeath - killed in the line of duty in Vancouver in1922. The man told the constable that the watch had been in his family for 30 years and had been the property of his late father who had been a watchmaker. He has now kindly donated the watch to the Vancouver Police Department.
Robert McBeath was raised in Kinlochbervie and joined up at the very start of World War I when he was just 16. He was awarded the Victoria Cross just over 4 years later for “conspicuous bravery “in single-handedly attacking a machine gun nest at the Battle of Cambrai in France. McBeath’s Victoria Cross citation in the London Gazette concluded with: “The conduct of L/Corpl. McBeath throughout three days of severe fighting was beyond praise”.
After winning the Victoria Cross, McBeath was granted leave to visit home. Because of heavy snows, he was unable to reach Kinlochbervie and decided to go to Golspie where the Seaforth Highlanders had their headquarters. Arriving in Golspie, he was met at the station by a piper and welcomed warmly into the community. At a reception held in his honour in February 1918, he was presented with the gold watch and £367 that he intended to use to buy a farm.
The watch went with him to Canada when he and his wife Barbara emigrated in August 1919. He joined the police force in Vancouver and was fatally injured in 1922. He and his partner had pulled over a car being driven erratically. The driver shot him and McBeath died almost immediately.
Mrs McBeath returned to Scotland two months later eventually marrying Robert’s best friend Alexander MacDonald in 1924 and settling in Scourie.
The watch is engraved with the following: “Presented with War Stock Certificate
by the people of Sutherland to Lce Corp. R. McBeath 5th Seaforth Highlanders
in recognition of the Gallantry and Heroism which won him the coveted VC January 1918.”
Robert McBeath is one of the most revered fallen officers in Vancouver and his picture hangs in the lobby of the Vancouver Police Headquarters. His funeral in 1922 was the largest ever in Vancouver up to that point.