MASONIC BIOGRAPHIES VICTORIA CROSS RECIPIENTS FAMOUS FREEMASONS

Robert Gordon McBeath Died October 9th, 1922, aged 23 † Robert Gordon McBeath was awarded the Victoria Cross for single handedly capturing an emplacement of five machine guns during the battle of the Somme, in Cambrai France, on November 20, 1917. He joined the Vancouver Police Force on August 12, 1921, and little more than a year later, at 2:30 in the morning of October 9th, 1922, he was shot at close range while apprehending one Fred Deal of Florida at the corner of Davie and Granville Streets, dying shortly after being admitted to Saint Paul’s Hospital. Constable McBeath’s funeral procession, attended by thousands, was one of the largest ever held in Vancouver. Led by Vancouver Police Inspector George Hood on horse back and two other mounted policemen, the procession included the Vancouver Police Pipe Band, his widow Barbara in a hearse, the mayor and council members, 377 freemasons, eighty members of the Vancouver Police led by Chief Constable James Anderson, one hundred members of the Vancouver Fire Department, twelve members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in scarlet uniform, fifty members of the Seaforth Highlanders Regiment Vancouver, a contingent from the Irish Fusiliers of Canada, several hundred World War One veterans, forty members of the BC Electric Railway, twelve members of the Canadian Pacific Police, several hundred members of the Foresters, St. Andrews, and Caledonia Societies and also several hundred members of the public. Initiated: July 12, 1919 Lodge St Mary’s Caledonian Operative, No.339 (Inverness) Passed: October 29, 1921 Raised: April 18, 1922 Mount Hermon Lodge No. 7, BCR Source: Grand Lodge of Scotland records. 1869-1994, 125 Years, Mount Herman Lodge No. 7. pp. 101-02. Also see vancouverpolicemuseum.ca.

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