Beckwith, John Charles

  • DICTIONARY OF CANADIAN BIOGRAPHY ARTICLE: Phyllis R. Blakeley, “BECKWITH, JOHN CHARLES,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–. https://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/beckwith_john_charles_9E.html
  • DCB profile notes:
    • British army officer and missionary; b. 2 Oct. 1789 at Halifax, N.S., the son of John Beckwith and Mary (Polly) Halliburton, sister of Brenton Halliburton; d. 19 July 1862 at his home, La Torre, near Turin (Italy).
    • John Charles Beckwith’s father had been an officer in the British army but he resigned his commission and settled in Nova Scotia where he served as adjutant-general and lieutenant-colonel in the provincial militia. On 2 June 1803 in England John Charles entered the British army as an ensign in the 50th or West Kent Regiment of Foot; on 29 Aug. 1804 he became a lieutenant in the 95th or Rifle Regiment of which his uncle, Sir Thomas Beckwith, was lieutenant-colonel.
    • In 1815 he served with Sir Thomas Picton’s division at the battles of Quatre-Bras and Waterloo, where he lost his leg after it was shattered by a cannonball. He was rewarded with the Waterloo medal, promotion to lieutenant-colonel on 18 June 1815, and nomination as cb on 22 June. John Charles Beckwith was 2 5 years old and he had been in the army for 12 years fighting against Napoleon.
    • He read Dr William Stephen Gilly’s Narrative of an excursion to the mountains of Piemont . . . (London, 1824). This book led him to become concerned with the plight of a small group of Protestants known as Waldensians or Vaudois who lived in the Piedmont valleys near Pinerolo. Beckwith visited the Waldensians for several years, then decided to make his headquarters near Turin and devote the rest of his life to assisting them. Drawing on his experience in Halifax, he worked to improve Waldensian schools some of which were as “ill-built as barns, as dirty as stables.” He collected money from friends in England, visited the schools, urged building of new schools by the community, sent teachers to Lausanne and Florence for training, and encouraged the education of women.
  • Grandson of Proven Loyalist listed in Loyalist Directory –https://uelac.ca/loyalist-directory/detail/?wpda_search_column_id=9749
  • Find a GRAVE: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/281331343/john-charles-beckwith