The Enthusiastic Lt. Colonel Beauchamp

Lt. Colonel Beauchamp background

Lt. Colonel Beauchamp (Clayton), after whom the lodge is named, was born in India in 1842. He trained at the Addiscombe Military College in Surrey; and in 1865 as a Lieutenant in the Royal Engineers he returned to India to be the District Engineer for Gurruckpore, where he was involved with relief projects during the terrible Orissa Famine of 1866. In 1870 he joined the staff at the Roorkee Engineering College, and rose to become Personal Assistant to its Chief Engineer. In 1881 he briefly returned to England, before being promoted to Major and returning to India to work with the Railways Board.

Beauchamp was a well-known figure in India; he wrote articles for the ‘Pioneer’ a leading Indian newspaper, which did sometimes bring him into conflict with his superior officers. His friends and colleagues described him as a ‘most genial companion’; a story told about him said that he had ‘pointing hand’ signs painted on the walls of his bungalow in Roorkee to guide him to bed if he came home late after one drink too many!

Lt. Colonel Beauchamp was Initiated into Freemasonry, when a Lieutenant in 1870 at the Lodge of Hope in Meerut. An enthusiastic Freemason he was instrumental in founding the Beauchamp Lodge, but was unable to be its primus Master as he was not a Past Master. Beauchamp’s military duties would move him around India; and in January 1877 he made his last visit to the Beauchamp Lodge, when he was celebrated as its founder.

Lt. Colonel Beauchamp finally left India in 1884, and was stationed at Chatham on his retirement in 1886 with the honorary rank of Lt. Colonel. In March 1889 he died in poverty at Hastings when only 46 years old; sadly as he lay dying a letter seeking assistance for him was being read out in the Beauchamp Lodge at Roorkee.

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