The Memorial Cross issued to the next-of-kin of Pte. William Henry Beel, who was captured at Sidi Rezegh during Operation Crusader in November 1941 and held as a PoW for the remainder of the war, dying of medical complications from his incareration, in 1947.

 

William Beel was born in Dunedin on 25th March 1908, son of Jacob Vivian and Kathleen Beel (née McGee). He grew up in Dunedin and in Middlemarch, where he later worked as a labourer and was a prominent rugby footballer. 

At the time of his enlistment on the outbreak of war in 1939, Beel was working in Dunedin. He joined the 10th Railway Contruction Company and embarked for the UK with the Second Echelon. Full details of his service are unknown as his service file has not been obtained, but there is some evidence he tranferred to 20 Battalion, and records show he was captured on 13 December 1941 and held in a PoW Camp in Italy. He was later transferred to Stalag IV-G, Oschatz, Saxony, Germany on the collapse of the Italian Facist regime in 1943. Remarkably, the Beel family contributed five sons to the 2nd NZEF, of whom three became prisoners of war.

 

William returned to Dunedin in 1945 and 1946 married Myrtle Heenan. A son, William James, was born in February 1947, but he tragically passed away just a few weeks later, in April 1947. Further tragedy struck in August when William died in Dunedin Hospital from the effects of his war service. He rests in Anderson Bay Cemetery.

 

The Memorial Cross is cased and is correctly impressed 11445 CPL. W.H. BEEL