(503) Beale of Drumlamford and Standen House, baronets

The rise of this family to fortune began with William Beale (1770-1848), who was born at Atherstone in Warwickshire and apprenticed to a plumber in nearby Tamworth. He later established himself in business as a lead and glass merchant in Birmingham, where he was sufficiently successful to become part of the town elite, serving as Low Bailiff in 1822 and as one of the Street Commissioners (who provided the only effective urban administration until the borough was incorporated in 1838). William had two sons, the elder of whom, Samuel Beale (1803-74) began by following in his father's footsteps but rapidly diversified into banking, railways, ironworking and other boom industries. The younger son, William John Beale (1807-83), became a solicitor and founded one of the city's most successful legal practices.

Samuel Beale was Low Bailiff of Birmingham in 1834; Mayor of the town in 1841; Chairman of the Midland Railway for twenty years, from 1844-64; and eventually MP for Derby, 1857-65. He retired in the mid 1860s when his health began to fail, and moved to Warfield Grove, a large 18th century house in Berkshire, which he had bought in 1858. When he died in 1874 he left a fortune of some £350,000 derived from his interests in banking, railways and ironmaking, and the bulk of his property passed to his only surviving son, William Lansdowne Beale (1829-96). Warfield Grove was sold in 1906 by the latter's son, Arthur Geach Beale (1857-1908).

William John Beale (1807-83) became the solicitor to the Midland Railway, which was both profitable in itself and attracted further clients to his firm. Although he did not play a significant part in Birmingham politics, like his brother, he was a prominent member of the Unitarian congregation there, and was closely involved with the Birmingham Triennial Music Festival, which was both at the heart of the cultural life of the city and a major source of funding for the city's general hospital. He had four sons, three whom became lawyers and one a physician and surgeon (who lived to be 101 and therefore must count as something of an advert for his profession!). The eldest son, Sir William Phipson Beale (1839-1922) was educated for a career in industry but changed tack and became a successful barrister. In 1898 he bought Drumlamford House in Ayrshire as a holiday - and future retirement - home. He had tried unsuccessfully on several occasions to get elected as a Liberal MP in the West Midlands, but had more luck after moving to Ayrshire, becoming MP for South Ayrshire, 1906-18. He and his wife had no children, so on her death in 1927, Drumlamford passed to one of his nephews.

The second and third sons of W.J. Beale both became solicitors, like their father. James Samuel Beale (1840-1912) took over from his father as solicitor to the Midland Railway, and managed the London office of Beale & Co., which was maintained largely because the railway business involved a lot of parliamentary work. He became eminent in his field, and was President of the Law Society in 1908. His younger brother, Charles Gabriel Beale (1843-1912) managed the Birmingham office of Beale & Co., and was in many ways the successor to his father. This included his inheriting Bryn Tirion, the house in Wales which his father had built in the 1870s, which he retained and used as a holiday home until his death, after which it was sold and became an hotel. By 1890, J.S. Beale, who lived in the smart upper middle class district of Holland Park, London, obviously felt the need of a similar bolt hole away from London, to which he might eventually retire. In that year, he bought three farms near East Grinstead, and built a new country house, which he called Standen House, to the designs of Philip Webb. After his death, Standen passed to his widow and then his two spinster daughters, with the result that it remained essentially unchanged until the 1970s. Although a new appreciation for Victorian art and architecture was then in its infancy, the National Trust were persuaded to take on the house in 1972, and it has since been recognised as a rare (and well-documented) survival of Arts & Crafts taste.

James Samuel Beale had three sons. The eldest, Sir John Field Beale (1874-1935) was a solicitor, company director and industrialist, whose most prominent appointments were as chairman of the Midlands ironworking firm, GKN, and deputy chairman of the Midland Railway. During the First World War he assisted the Government with the supply of wheat, and was rewarded with a knighthood in 1918. He lived in a large but much altered Georgian house in the Norfolk broads. The second son, Sydney William Phipson Beale (1875-1960) trained as a barrister but became an officer in the territorial army at much the same time. He volunteered for active service in the Boer War and was called up again for the duration of the First World War. After the war, he retired from practice at the bar, and bought a farm in Sussex, which he continued to run until his death. The youngest son, Sir Samuel Richard Beale (1881-1964), kt., spent most of his working life with the Glasgow engineering firm of L. Sterne & Co., which made important advances in refrigeration technology in the early 20th century. He was President of the Glasgow Chamber of Commerce in 1929-30, and succeeded his elder brother as Chairman of GKN, 1935-47. During the Second World War, he was a member of the Government's Export Council, and he was knighted for his service there in 1942. It was he who inherited Drumlamford House on his aunt's death in 1927, and it passed in turn to his son, Richard Samuel Beale (1921-73), after which it was apparently sold.

Warfield House (formerly Warfield Grove), Berkshire

A three-storey brick house of c.1760 (though reputedly built around the remains of a house of 1702 which was damaged by fire), apparently built as a replacement for the moated manor house of Heathley Hall, which stood across the road. The house has a pair of later stuccoed canted bays on either side of a loggia on the garden front. Inside, two panelled rooms and a staircase with twisted balusters. The house expensively restored after 2000 in a project which was highly commended in the annual Georgian Group conservation awards. Inside, two panelled rooms and a staircase with twisted balusters.

Warfield House: garden front, 1812, attributed to David Cox. Image: Guy Tyrwhitt-Drake.

Descent: Admiral Sir George Bowyer (1740-1800), 5th bt.; sold c.1796 to Sir John Coxe Hippisley (1746-1825), 1st bt.; sold by 1805 to Arthur Annesley (1744-1816), 8th Viscount Valentia and 1st Earl Mountnorris; ... sold 1858 to Samuel Beale (1803-74); to son, William Lansdowne Beale (1829-96); to son, Arthur Geach Beale (1857-1908), who sold 1906 to Sir George Pigot; sold 1914 to Sir Campbell Kirkman Finlay (c.1876-1937), kt; sold to Sir George Edward Leon (c.1875-1947), 2nd bt.; to son, Sir Ronald George Leon (1902-64), 3rd bt, who sold before 1958 to Maj. Patrick John Gold; sold c.1980; sold 2000. The house was leased from c.1810-58 to a series of short-term tenants, including a school.

Bryn Tirion, Bontddu, Merionethshire

A High Victorian Gothic house, designed by A.B. Phipson of Birmingham in 1874 for the retirement of William John Beale (1807-83), and built in a lovely position on the wooded banks of the Afon Mawddach. The house is built of local stone but richly detailed with dressings and chimneystacks in a golden sandstone. The house is big-boned but of only three bays, the right one a cross-wing with an ashlar two-storey canted bay overlooking the view over the estuary. The fenestration is varied, with mullioned windows of different types on each floor: cusped, uncusped, and finally with slim column shafts. 

Bryn Tirion (later Bontddu Hall): the side elevation of the house in the early 20th century.

At the rear of the house, and built into the rising ground behind it, is a tower of four storeys with heavy battlements. The house became a hotel (known as the Bontddu Hall Hotel) in the early 20th century and large additions were made to provide additional accommodation in the late 20th century. The hotel closed in 2004 and the house became a private residence and wedding venue, but unfortunately it was largely burned out in 2020 while renovation works were taking place. The surviving shell was for sale in 2021.

Descent: built 1874 for William John Beale (1807-83); to son, Charles Gabriel Beale (1843-1912); sold for conversion to an hotel.

Drumlamford, Barrhill, Ayrshire

A country villa in a remote setting, with spectacular views over Loch Dornal and the surrounding moorland. As first built the house, which is built of grey rock-faced Dalbeattie granite, was a restrained classical building with hipped roofs, the style of which is still apparent from the porch with pilasters and Doric columns in antis. The garden front has a broad three-bay centre projecting well forward from the bays to either side. It was designed by William Fraser, junior and built in 1838-41 (by his father, William Fraser, senior) for Rigby Wason (1797-1875), a Scot who had been MP for Ipswich on several occasions in the 1830s and early 1840s. Once work at Drumlamford was complete, Wason went straight on to built Corwar House, begun in 1842, and it appears that both houses were constructed partly to provide unemployment relief at a time of cyclical depression. Wason did live at Corwar, but never at Drumlamford, which was let to the Rotch family and later the Vernons. 

Drumlamford House: the entrance and garden fronts in recent years.

Unfortunately, at an unknown date but probably after the house was acquired by the Beales in 1898, the original roof was replaced by flat rendered gables with rather cutesy demi-oculi lighting the attic storey. It would be interesting to known when and why this change was made: there was a fire at the house in 1925, but it only affected the ground floor rooms, was extinguished quickly, and does not seem to have caused any major structural damage, so is unlikely to account for the change to the roof.

Descent: built for Rigby Wason (1797-1875); sold 1879 to Mr. G.F. Hayward; sold 1898 to Sir William Phipson Beale (1839-1922), 1st bt.; to widow, Mary (d. 1927), Lady Beale; to nephew, Sir Samuel Richard Beale (1881-1964), kt.; to son, Richard Samuel Beale (1921-73)...the estate was apparently sequestered in 1987 and sold on behalf of the creditors.

Standen House, East Grinstead, Sussex

An important and influential country house built in 1891-94 on a small estate comprising three farms to the south of East Grinstead, soon after the opening of a new branch railway had made the area accessible to families from London looking for a country retreat. Having acquired the site, James Beale (1840-1912) first commissioned the design of a garden from George B. Simpson, who selected and levelled the site for a new house and designed a rather old-fashioned 'Gardenesque' layout around it. Beale then asked the Arts & Crafts architect, Philip Webb, to design the new house and was persuaded to adjust the site so that it nestled a little more closely into the sloping ground than Simpson had intended. The site was adjacent to the partly 15th century Hollybush Farm, which Webb not only retained and adapted as outbuildings and stables, but the scale and materials of which (especially the use of brick, tile-hanging and weather-boarding) he adopted for the new house. In 1972 the house became one of the first Victorian properties accepted by the National Trust and opened to the public.

Standen House: the approach to the house lies through the archway in the centre between the old farmhouse on the right
and the service court on the left. Image: Nick Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

Webb's new house is essentially an L-shaped block, consisting of a long narrow range containing the family rooms and, at right angles to it, the service range, with the angle between the two articulated by a brick water tower coated in yellow roughcast. An archway beyond the service range linked it to the 15th century farm buildings and provided the principal approach to the front of the house. The house was deliberately designed to be unpretentious, in deference to the Unitarian faith and long puritan tradition of the Beales (Mrs. Beale was a descendant of Oliver Cromwell), and the entrance front, which faces north onto the informal courtyard enclosed by the service wing and older farm buildings is notably dour. The south-facing garden front has a much more cheerful aspect, and commands sweeping views across the Sussex Weald.

Standen House: the jumbled and unprepossessing entrance front. Image: Nick Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

For the visitor approaching the house, the first view of the entrance front is immensely disappointing. The two storey block is built of a dull almost greenish coloured brick and has nine bays that are neither symmetrical nor decisively asymmetrical: the overall effect is suggestive of a board school built on the cheap. The porch is unsettlingly set slightly off-centre, in a surround of sandstone quarried in the garden (which is perhaps the best feature of the front), and immediately next to it is a bay window, added to the hall in 1898 and built of a different stone. Webb's idea was that the different building material should mark it clearly as an addition (as recommended by the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings), but in context it just adds to the visual confusion. The windows are generally Georgian style sash windows set in openings with segmental heads, but the outer pairs on the ground floor are disturbingly long and narrow. The six wooden dormer windows in the tiled roof are at least visually symmetrical, but their attempt to assert a coherence over the elevation below is rather spoilt by the giant asymmetrically placed brick chimneystacks.

Standen House: the visually more rewarding garden front. Image: Nick Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

At the back of the house, the garden front is a very different and much more successful story. From here, the range containing the rooms along the entrance front appears a taller block terminating in the water tower and finished like the tower with yellow roughcast (which was applied because Webb was worried that plain brickwork might suffer from water penetration in this exposed position). Projecting forward from this range is a five bay block of two storeys (stone on the ground floor, and tile-hung above) with closely-spaced weatherboarded gables. This most attractive effect is said to have been influenced by a row of similarly closely-spaced gables, added c.1603-08 to Knole House (Kent). To the left of the five-bay block is the single-storey conservatory, which has an arcaded brick front and a glazed roof. 

Standen House: ground plan in 1910. Image: Country Life.

The design and the internal layout evolved in discussion between the architect and his clients in the summer of 1891, with the original proposals for a slightly larger house being reduced for reasons of economy and because Standen was intended to be a family house and not a venue for lavish weekend entertaining, like many new houses of this period. As finally built, in 1892-94, the house had five main reception rooms (hall, billiard room, drawing room, dining room and morning room) linked by staggered central corridor, as well as a conservatory which was from the beginning used as an informal room where afternoon tea might be served, and a business room with a corner fireplace. The oak staircase is in the centre of the house, and rises around a narrow open well; it has pierced splat balusters of Jacobean form and a plain but ramped handrail. 

Standen House: staircase. Image: Nick Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

The entrance porch opens into a vestibule between the hall and business room. The hall is set at right-angles to the entrance front, with the bay window of 1898 added to its short end: before this was constructed it must have been a rather gloomy room, especially as the panelling was originally painted 'dragon's blood' red! At the same time as the bay window was built, the wall between the hall and the corridor behind it was taken down to make the room larger, and the present decorative scheme of off-white paint was introduced. Here, as in all the main rooms, the dominant feature is the fireplace and its overmantel, and the simple decoration is enhanced by the textiles, furniture, ceramics and other decorative items, mostly chosen with Webb's advice from the collection of Morris & Co. The surviving original furnishings have been greatly augmented by pieces donated by Arthur and Helen Grogan, custodians of the house from 1977-86, who also helped to provide an endowment for the property. 

Standen House: hall chimneypiece. Image: Nick Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

Standen House: drawing room. Image: Nick Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

Opening off the hall is the billiard room, which was also altered in 1898, when the alcove at the west end was formed. Behind the hall is the L-shaped drawing room, which enjoys the views over the garden terrace to the Weald beyond. This room, and the adjoining dining room, with its panelling painted a charming green, faithful to the original colour, perhaps give the best impression of what the house would have been like when it was the home of the Beales. One of the ways in which Webb's original design for the house was simplified was the omission of a dedicated library. The result is that there are bookcases here and there throughout the house, but especially in the billiard room and the morning room: the idea seems to have been to segregate the books of primarily male and female interest! The Beales found Standen 'delightful and wonderfully comfortable', and made few changes to the house, which had been lit from the beginning by electricity.

Standen House: dining room. Image: Nick Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

Standen House: morning room. Image: Nick Kingsley. Some rights reserved.

Outside, Simpson's original garden layout was simplified and naturalised under the influence of Philip Webb, who helped Margaret Beale to adapt it to better reflect the style of the house. Together, they laid out the Terrace Walk in 1893, and in 1896-97 Backhouse & Sons of York formed the Quarry Garden out of the quarry from which stone had been dug for the house. Further work was done in 1910, when J. Cheal & Sons of Crawley formed the New Terrace or Rock Tip Walk at the highest point of the site and built the summerhouse aligned on West Hoathly church. After the National Trust took over the property in 1972, the garden was redesigned by Graham Stuart Thomas so that it could be maintained by a single gardener. The great storm of 1987 brought down many trees and damaged the conservatory, and the loss of the protective micro-climate created by the big trees meant that some further, tender, plants were also lost. A full-scale garden restoration began in 2007, but much remained to be done, especially in the Quarry Garden, in 2019.

Descent: built for James Samuel Beale (1840-1912); to widow, Margaret Beale (1847-1936); to daughters, Margaret Sarah Beale (1872-1947) and Helen Mary Beale (1885-1972), who bequeathed it to The National Trust.

Beale family of Drumlamford and Standen House

Beale, William (1770-1848). Son of Charles Beale (1732-80) of Atherstone (Warks) and his wife Hannah Brierley (1734-1821), baptised at Atherstone Old Meeting Presbyterian church, 18 November 1770. Apprenticed to Edward Thurman of Tamworth, plumber, 1783. Lead and glass merchant in Birmingham. JP for Warwickshire; Low Bailiff of Birmingham, 1822; a Birmingham Street Act Commissioner; Chairman of the Proprietors of the Birmingham & Worcester Canal. He married 1st, 14 August 1796 at Tamworth (Warks), Sarah (1773-1822), daughter of John Bailey of Tamworth (Staffs), 2nd, 7 August 1823 at All Saints & St. Laurence, Evesham (Worcs), Elizabeth Mary Hyatt (c.1776-1825), and 3rd, 10 April 1830 at St Peter & St Paul, Aston (Warks), Anne Colmore (c.1774-1865) of Birmingham, and had issue:

(1.1) Mary Beale (1798-1816), born 23 March 1798; died unmarried, 26 February 1816;

(1.2) Samuel Beale (1803-74) (q.v.);

(1.3) William John Beale (1807-83) (q.v.).

He died 8 September 1848 and was buried at the Old Meeting House, Birmingham, where he was commemorated by a monument; his will was proved in the PCC, 22 January 1849. His first wife died 2 August and was buried at the Old Meeting House, Birmingham, 7 August 1822. His second wife died 14 October 1825. His widow died aged 91 on 16 June 1865.

Samuel Beale (1803-74) 

Beale, Samuel (1803-74). Elder son of William Beale (1770-1848) and his first wife Sarah, born 4 June 1803. He started in business as a lead and glass merchant, but quickly diversified into banking, ironworks and railways and other enterprises. He was a director of the Birmingham and Midland Bank (later the Midland Bank) from 1836 and of the Union Bank of London; established the Parkgate Iron Works, Rotherham (Yorks WR) and ran it, 1842-64; was Chairman of the Midland Railway, 1844-64 and a director of the Crystal Palace Co., 1856. He was a JP for Birmingham, Low Bailiff of the Manor of Birmingham, 1834, and one of the first aldermen of the borough after it obtained its charter in 1838 (Mayor, 1841); Liberal MP for Derby, 1857–65 (the town having strong links with the Midland Railway Company). He was a lifelong Unitarian, and latterly a member of the Church of the Messiah, Birmingham. According to his obituarist, he 'possessed a genial and kindly nature, a cultivated taste, and broad and liberal sympathies.' He married 1st, 29 October 1822 at St Swithin Walcot, Bath, Emma (c.1801-47), daughter of Edmund Butcher of Sidmouth (Devon), Unitarian minister, and 2nd, 16 July 1856 in Chester (Ches.), Mary (1815-86), eldest daughter of John Johnson of Field House, Chester, and had issue:

(1.1) Sarah Eliza Beale (1823-43), born 25 July 1823; died unmarried, 16 December 1843;

(1.2) Edmund Franks Beale (1825-52), born 5 September 1825; educated at Birmingham, Trinity and Gonville & Caius Colleges, Cambridge (matriculated 1845; scholar 1846-48 and prizeman, but did not graduate), Inner Temple (admitted 1847); died unmarried, 10 January 1852; 

(1.3) Catherine Emma Beale (1827-1911), born 26 May 1827; married, 9 May 1854 at St George, Bloomsbury (Middx), Henry Oliver Sargant (1818-80), barrister-at-law, son of William Sargant, and had issue four sons and four daughters; lived latterly at Calverley Park, Tunbridge Wells; died 31 January 1911; will proved 14 October 1911 (estate £62,602);

(1.4) William Lansdowne Beale (1829-96), born 11 March 1829; succeeded his father as chairman of Parkgate Ironworks, Rotherham (Yorks WR), 1864 and inherited Warfield Grove from him in 1874, but lived at Waltham St. Lawrence (Berks); married 1st, 26 March 1857 at Willesden (Middx), Caroline (1835-78), daughter of Charles Geach MP, and had issue four sons and five daughters; married 2nd, 15 September 1881 at Hillmorton (Warks), Louisa (1842-84), daughter of Rev. John James Skally of Newent (Glos); married 3rd, 20 July 1886 at St Marylebone (Middx), his cousin, Elizabeth Sarah Beale (1838-1930); died 27 February 1896; will proved 27 April 1896 (effects £286,836).

He purchased Warfield Grove (Berks) in 1858.

He died at Warfield Grove on 11 September 1874; his will was proved 6 November 1874 (effects under £350,000). His first wife died 13 August 1847. His widow died in Liverpool, 28 September 1886; her will was proved 15 November 1886 (estate £13,816).

Beale, William John (1807-83). Younger son of William Beale (1770-1848) and his first wife Sarah, born 9 August 1807. He qualified as a solicitor in 1837, and entered into partnership with Thomas Colmore, a relative of his father's third wife, Ann. The success of the firm was built on managing the interests of the families to which the partners were related, most importantly the Colmore estate in central Birmingham. Through his brother, Beale also became legal adviser to the Midland Railway, and the large amount of parliamentary work associated with railway promotion led to the establishment of a separate London office in the late 1840s. The success of the firm's work for the Midland Railway attracted other large commercial and financial concerns as clients. Beale was a staunch Liberal in politics but did not take a major part in civic affairs. He was more prominent as a leading member of the Unitarian church in Birmingham,  initially at the New Meeting and later at the Church of the Messiah. His philanthropic work was focused on fundraising for the Birmingham General Hospital through the organization of the Birmingham Triennial Music Festivals (Chairman of the Orchestral Committee, 1870-76). He was a JP for Merionethshire. He married, 23 May 1837 at Edgbaston (Warks), Martha Phipson (1812-83), and had issue:

(1) Elizabeth Sarah Beale (1838-1930), born Oct-Dec 1838; married, 20 July 1886 at St Marylebone (Middx), as his second wife, her cousin, William Lansdowne Beale (1829-96) of The Manor House, Waltham St. Lawrence (Berks), son of Samuel Beale (1803-74), but had no issue; died 5 November 1930; will proved 12 December 1930 (estate £50,555);

(2) Sir William Phipson Beale (1839-1922), 1st bt. (q.v.);

(3) James Samuel Beale (1840-1912) (q.v.);

(4) Charles Gabriel Beale (1843-1912) (q.v.);

(5) Mary Emma Beale (1848-92), born 26 January 1848; married, 20 March 1880 at Christ Church, Paddington (Middx), William Bell Davies (1846-91) of Croxley Grove, Rickmansworth (Herts), son of Richard Davies, and had issue one son; died 15 May 1892; will proved 25 June 1892 (effects £12,894);

(6) Dr. Edwin Clifford Beale (1851-1953), born 16 October 1851; educated at Edgbaston, Harrow and Gonville & Caius College, Cambridge (matriculated 1870; BA 1874; MA 1877; MB 1880); elected MRCS, 1878 and FRCP, 1890; house physician at Guy's Hospital, Consulting Physician to the City of London Hospital for diseases of the chest and to the Royal Northern Hospital, London until he retired c.1911; Vice-President of the Royal Northern Hospital; lived in Chelsea (Middx); married, 16 November 1886 at Lillington (Warks), Mary Elizabeth (1852-1929), daughter of Algernon Sydney Field, solicitor, and had issue one son and one daughter; died aged 101 on 31 January 1953; will proved 8 April 1953 (estate £33,501).

He purchased the Bryntirion estate at Dolgellau in north Wales and built a residence there in 1874.

He died at Dolgellau on 21 May 1883, and was buried at Key Hill Cemetery, Birmingham; his will was proved 12 July 1883 (effects £115,748). His wife died 16 August 1883; administration of her goods was granted 19 June 1884 (effects £2,543).

Sir William Phipson Beale
(1839-1922), 1st bt. 

Beale, Sir William Phipson (1839-1922), 1st bt. Eldest son of William John Beale (1807-83) and his wife Martha Phipson, born 29 October 1839. Educated for industry and spent a brief period at the Sheffield ironworks (of which his uncle Samuel was a director) before attending Lincolns Inn (admitted, 1864; called, 1867; bencher, 1892). Barrister-at-law (QC 1888). A Liberal in politics, he stood unsuccessfully for Parliament in North Warwickshire, 1885, and Birmingham (three times), before being elected as MP for South Ayrshire, 1906-18. He was elected a member of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1860, and was created a baronet, 3 July 1912. He married, 5 August 1869 at Edgbaston (Warks), Mary (1846-1927), elder daughter of William Thompson of Sydney, New South Wales (Australia) and Edgbaston, but had no issue.

He lived at Whitehall Court, Westminster, and Drumlamford (Ayrshire), which he purchased in 1898.

He died in Dorking (Surrey), 13 April 1922, when his baronetcy became extinct; his will was proved 24 May 1922 (estate £95,378) and certified in Edinburgh, 31 May 1922. His widow died 12 January 1927; her will was confirmed, 3 May 1927 (estate £19,825).

James Samuel Beale (1840-1912) 

Beale, James Samuel (1840-1912). Second son of William John Beale (1807-83) and his wife Martha Phipson, born 5 December 1840. Educated at Edgbaston and University College, London (matriculated 1858; BA 1861). He was an articled clerk in his father's office from 1860, and after being admitted as a solicitor in 1864, became manager of the firm's London office from 1866-1905. He acted as solicitor for the Midland Railway, 1867-1905, and his knowledge of railway law, and his skill in negotiations and the conduct of parliamentary procedure were widely recognized and frequently called on by royal commissions, departmental committees, and the Railway Companies Association, to which he was also solicitor for some time. He became a director of the Midland Railway on his retirement from practice in 1905, and was also chairman of L. Sterne & Co. Ltd, a Glasgow-based engineering firm, 1882-1910. President of the Law Society, 1908. JP for Sussex. He married, 19 April 1870 at Lillington (Warks), Margaret (1847-1936), daughter of Algernon Sidney Field (1813-1907), solicitor, and had issue:

(1) Amy Elizabeth Beale (1871-1946), born 12 February 1871; married, 20 September 1902 at Essex Church, Kensington (Middx), Edgar Worthington (1856-1934), engineer and secretary of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1898-1920, second son of Samuel Barton Worthington of Mill Bank, Bowden (Ches.), and had issue one son and three daughters; died 2 October 1946; will proved 22 January 1947 (estate £50,966);

(2) Margaret Sarah Beale (1872-1947), born 29 July 1872; lived at Standen with her mother and unmarried sister; interested herself in mental health issues and was a member of the Central Organisation for Mental Welfare and Hon. Secretary and co-founder of the 'Hermitage Training Home for Female Mental Defectives' at Fairwarp (Sussex); died 5 August 1947; will proved 21 November 1947 (estate £100,762);

(3) Sir John Field Beale, kt. (1874-1935), born 15 January 1874; educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1892; BA 1896; rowing blue, 1898; MA 1922); solicitor; a director of the Midland Railway and later the London, Midland & Scottish Railway (Deputy Chairman, 1919); the Midland Bank; the Legal Insurance Co. Ltd. (Chairman), L. Sterne & Co. of Glasgow (Chairman, 1924-35) and Guest Keen & Nettlefold (Chairman); served in First World War as Chairman of Wheat Executive; First Secretary, Ministry of Food, 1918; joint UK representative on Allied Supreme Council of Supply and Relief, 1919; appointed KBE, 1918, and was also made a Commander of the Order of the Crown of Italy, 1917, an Officer of the Legion d'honneur (France), 1918, and a Commander of the Crown of Leopold (Belgium), 1919; Vice-Chairman of the Royal Commission on Wheat Supplies, 1935; a freemason from 1896; lived at North Bay, Oulton Broad (Norfk) and was a JP for Norfolk; married, 12 September 1901 at Christ Church, Cockfosters (Middx), Daisy Emma (1874-1963), daughter of James Aylward Game of New Barnet (Middx), and had issue two sons and two daughters; died 9 December 1935; will proved 11 January 1936 (estate £35,726);

(4) Sydney William Phipson Beale (1875-1960), born 11 September 1875; educated at Harrow, Trinity College, Oxford (matriculated 1894; BA 1897) and Lincolns Inn (admitted 1897; called 1900); barrister-at-law and an officer in the militia battalion of the Royal Sussex Regiment (2nd Lt., 1897; Lt., 1899; Capt., 1903; Maj., 1916), who saw active service in the Boer War and First World War; an extensive account of his military career can be found here; in 1918 he gave up his legal practice and bought Cobnor House, Chidham (Sussex) where he farmed for the rest of his life; married, 23 May 1912 at East Grinstead (Sussex), Margaret Louisa Chichester (1886-1969), nurse and masseuse, eldest daughter of Edgar March Crookshank of Saint Hill Manor, East Grinstead, and had issue one son and two daughters; died 28 June 1960; will proved 9 December 1960 (estate £64,892);

(5) Dorothy Beale (1877-1969), born 30 January 1877, and was baptised into the Church of England at Leatherhead (Surrey), 16 May 1913; married, 23 January 1902 at St Mary Abbots, Kensington (Middx), Harold George Brown (1876-1949), solicitor, director of the BBC and BOAC, eldest son of Harold Brown of Chester Terrace, Regent's Park, and had issue three sons and three daughters; died aged 91 on 16 January 1969; will proved 13 March 1969 (estate £62,777);

(6) Sir Samuel Richard Beale (1881-1964), kt. (q.v.);

(7) Helen Mary Beale (1885-1972) (q.v.).

He purchased an estate comprising three farms near East Grinstead (Sussex) in 1890, and employed Philip Webb to build a new country house, Standen House, there in 1891-94.

He died at Standen, 28 August 1912; his will was proved 2 October 1912 (estate £150,000). His widow died 9 March 1936; her will was proved April 1936 (estate £18,181).

Sir Samuel Richard Beale (1881-1964), kt. 

Beale, Sir Samuel Richard (1881-1964), kt. Third and youngest son of James Samuel Beale (1840-1912) and his wife Margaret, daughter of Algernon Sidney Field, solicitor, born 7 February 1881. Educated at Marlborough and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1899; BA 1903; rowing blue, 1903). Employed by L. Sterne & Co. from 1903 (director and general manager, 1912; managing director, 1924; chairman, 1935). Chairman of GKN in succession to his brother, 1935-47. President of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, 1929-30 and of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce, 1934-36. Member of the Export Council, 1940. He was described as having a sense of humour and the ability to make quick decisions, and was said to have adopted 'an uncomplicated lifestyle'. He was appointed KBE, 1942, and was author of The Crown Ironworks: the history of L. Sterne & Co. Ltd., 1874–1949 (1951). He married, 23 April 1908 at Kingston-on-Thames (Surrey), Sylvia Constance (1885-1953), daughter of Horace Bell (1839-1903), and had issue:

(1) Adam Malcolm Beale (1917-67), born in Glasgow, 4 February 1917; served in Second World War in Kings Shropshire Light Infantry (2nd Lt., 1940); lived at The Manor, Shipham (Som.) married, 16 November 1946 at St Michael, Belgravia, Westminster (Middx), Alison Sylvia Lorraine (1923-2004), daughter of Lawrence Gray of Johannesburg (South Africa), and had issue two daughters; died 14 January 1967; will proved 9 June 1967 (estate £54,498);

(2) William Horace Beale (1920-96), born in Glasgow, 21 January 1920; Foreign Office official; married, 3 July 1948, Jean Florita (1926-2005), daughter of Maj. Donald McBarnet, and had issue two daughters; died 28 September 1996; will proved 11 December 1996;

(3) Richard Samuel Beale (1921-73), born in Glasgow, 18 January 1921; inherited Drumlamford from his father in 1964; died 13 December 1973; will proved 11 April 1974 (estate £333,352).

He inherited Drumlamford House in 1927 under the terms of his uncle's will.

He died at Drumlamford, 10 October 1964; his will was proved 8 January 1965 (estate £123,648). His wife died 19 May 1953; her will was proved 8 September 1953 (estate £13,966).

Helen Mary Beale (1885-1972) 

Beale, Helen Mary (1885-1972). Fourth and youngest daughter of James Samuel Beale (1840-1912) and his wife Margaret, daughter of Algernon Sidney Field, solicitor, born 9 November 1885. Educated at Norland Place School, Kensington and Roedean. During the First World War she served as a VAD nurse in France, 1915-16, and then joined the Women's Royal Naval Service (Deputy Principal, Dover, 1918; Divisional Director, Devonport, 1918). She was noted for her exceptional administrative ability, and was awarded the OBE for her war service, 1919. After the war, she continued to work for the Red Cross (Asst. Commandant, Sussex, 1924) and became a committee member of the Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, 1934-63. As a young woman she travelled widely with her parents and unmarried sister, and in the 1920s made regular skiing trips to Switzerland with her relations. She was unmarried and without issue.

She and her unmarried sister inherited Standen House from her mother in 1936 and made members of the wider family welcome there until shortly before her death. By her will, the house was bequeathed to The National Trust in 1972.

She died in 13 May 1972; her will was proved 1 June 1972 (estate £513,441).

Charles Gabriel Beale (1843-1912) 

Beale, Charles Gabriel (1843-1912). Third son of William John Beale (1807-83) and his wife Martha Phipson, born 10 May 1843. Educated at Edgbaston and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1861; BA 1865; MA 1881). He joined his father's firm and trained as a solicitor, becoming solicitor to the Birmingham and Midland Bank and a legal adviser to the Midland Railway. In retirement he was a member of the Royal Commission on the working of the Railway Conciliation Scheme, 1911. He was a Liberal in politics, and a Unitarian in religion, and he became heavily involved in Birmingham's municipal affairs, serving on many of the corporation's important committees. JP for Birmingham; Mayor of Birmingham, 1897-1900, and on the formation of the University of Birmingham he became its first Vice-Chancellor, 1900. He succeeded his father as a principal organizer of the Birmingham Triennial Music Festivals. High Sheriff of Merionethshire, 1907-08. He married, 7 August 1868, Alice (d. 1940), daughter of Timothy Kenrick, manufacturer (whose sisters married Joseph Chamberlain and Thomas Martineau), and they had issue:

(1) Hubert Kenrick Beale (1869-1954) (q.v.);

(2) Edith Mary Beale (1870-1961), born 23 October 1870; married, 18 July 1898 at the Church of the Messiah, Birmingham, George Penkivil Slade (1866-1925), son of George Penkivil Slade of Sydney, New South Wales (Australia), and had issue three sons and one daughter; died 10 November 1961; will proved 30 January 1962 (estate £49,286);

(3) Edmund Phipson Beale (1872-1952), born 7 March 1872; solicitor, partner in Beale & Co. of Birmingham from c.1903; married, 7 August 1908, Annie Lucy (1876-1953), daughter of William Arthur Smith of Edgbaston, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 5 February 1952; will proved 5 May 1952 (estate £78,445);

(4) Norah Beale (1874-1961), born 24 January 1874; married, 1906, Wilfrid Byng Kenrick (1872-1962), son of William Kenrick (1831-1919), and had issue three sons and one daughter; died 24 April 1961; will proved 28 July 1961 (estate £19,651).

He lived at Maple Bank, Edgbaston, Birmingham and Bryntirion, Dolgellau (Merioneths), the latter being sold after his death for conversion to an hotel.

He died in Birmingham, 1 September 1912, just four days after his elder brother. His will was proved about November 1912 (estate £135,637). His widow died 20 March 1940; her will was proved about August 1940 (estate £18,970).

Beale, Hubert Kenrick (1869-1954). Elder son of Charles Gabriel Beale (1843-1912) and his wife Alice, daughter of Timothy Kenrick, manufacturer, born 13 November 1869. Educated at Rugby and Trinity College, Cambridge (matriculated 1888; BA 1891; MA 1902). He joined his father's legal practice in Birmingham, was admitted a solicitor, 1895, and was a partner from the late 1890s. He was Chairman of the South Staffordshire Waterworks Co., 1913-45 and a director of Tarmac Ltd and the Legal Insurance Co. Ltd. He was a member of Birmingham Corporation from 1914 (alderman from 1932), and chaired its Electricity Supply Committee, 1922-32, and Water Committee, 1931-44. He was also one of the Guardians of the Birmingham Assay Office. He married, 27 November 1903 at the Church of the Messiah, Birmingham, Mabel (1868-1940), second daughter of John Arthur Kenrick (1829-1926), and had issue:

(1) Malcolm Weatherley Beale (1904-89), born 6 August 1904; solicitor; partner in Beale & Co. of Birmingham from c.1930-c.1974; married, 19 October 1927 at Edgbaston, Elsie Annie (1906-98), daughter of Frederick Heacock of Warley (Staffs), dairyman, and had issue two daughters; died 22 October 1989; will proved 6 December 1989 (estate under £100,000);

(2) Claire Marion Beale (1907-98), born 2 July 1907; married, 6 October 1933 at Edgbaston, Dr. Philip Joseph Ganner (1904-70) of Acocks Green, Birmingham, obstetric surgeon, and had issue two sons and one daughter; died 9 February 1998; will proved 14 May 1998.

He lived at The Elms, Edgbaston Park Road, Birmingham.

He died 4 February 1954; his will was proved 4 May 1954 (estate £97,421). His wife died 27 October 1940; her will was proved about January 1941 (estate £25,667).

Principal sources

Burke's Peerage and Baronetage, 1924, p. 227; M.C. Davis, The castles and mansions of Ayrshire, 1991, p. 244; S. Kirk, Philip Webb: pioneer of Arts & Crafts architecture, 2005, pp. 150-60; National Trust guidebook to Standen House, 2007; R. Haslam, J. Orbach & A. Voelcker, The buildings of Wales: Gwynedd, 2009, p. 560; R. Close & A. Riches, The buildings of Scotland: Ayrshire and Arran, 2012, p. 295;

http://www2.westsussex.gov.uk/learning-resources/LR/sydney_william_phipson_bealee9ce.pdf?docid=5ef114fb-2ecc-41f9-a57e-9f0e0e46633f&version=-1

Location of archives

Beale family of Birmingham: family correspondence and papers, 1718-1937 [Birmingham Archives, MS3597]

Beale family of Standen: deeds, estate and family papers, including records relating to the building of Standen, 1760-20th cent. [West Sussex Record Office, Standen MSS]

Beale & Co., solicitors, of Birmingham: clients papers, 17th-20th cent. [Birmingham Archives, MS3]

Coat of arms

None recorded.

Can you help?

• Can anyone supply a photograph of Drumlamford in its original condition, before the roof was altered, or explain when and why the change to the roof was made?
• Can anyone provide photographs or portraits of the people whose names appear in bold above, for whom no image is currently shown?
• If anyone can offer further information or corrections I should be most grateful. I am always particularly pleased to hear from current owners or the descendants of families associated with a property who can supply information from their own research or personal knowledge for inclusion.

Revision and acknowledgements

This post was first published 22 December 2021, and was updated 29 January 2022. I am most grateful to Martin John Kenrick for corrections.