- See Cyril Arthur Bean’s entry on the Board of Trade’s Ancestry public tree.
- This information updates the group’s previous research published on the former DTI website (now archived by the National Archives).
- Do you have any more information about Cyril Arthur Bean? If so the War Memorial Research Group would love to hear from you
Name recorded on Board of Trade Memorial: C. A. Bean
Born: Thorpe Hamlet, Norfolk
Date of Death: 19 April 1916
Age at death: 22
Service, Regiment, Corps, etc: Royal Army Service Corps
Unit, Ship, etc: Attached 29th Division HQ
Enlisted: Norwich
Rank: Private (Service No: 54/055859)
Decorations: WW1 Service Medals (Victory Medal and British War Medal)
War (and theatre): WW1 (Egypt)
Manner of Death: Died on Active Service (DOAS)
Family Details: Son of Arthur G and Rebecca J Bean, 8 Hanover Road, Norwich
Residence: Norwich
Home Department: Board of Trade – Labour Department (London & South Eastern Division)
Civilian Rank:
Cemetery or Memorial: Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt (F.37); Board of Trade War Memorial; Memorial to Staff of the Ministry of Labour, Caxton House, Tothill Street, London; Heigham Holy Trinity Church, Norwich
Biography:
Cyril was born in about 1894 in Thorpe Hamlet, Norfolk. His parents were Arthur George Bean (1864-1935) and Rebecca Jane Lubbock (1864-1951). He had two sisters – Hilda Maud Bean (1891-?) and Winifred Jane Bean (1895-1986) and three brothers – George Bean (1898-1907), Arnold Bean (1899-1988) and George Fred Bean (1909-1989).
In the 1901 census, the Bean family are living at 187 Dereham Road, Norwich and Cyril is aged 7. His father is employed as a grain merchant. By the time of the 1911 census, when Cyril is aged 17, the Bean family are still living in Norwich but have moved to 61 City Road. By this time, Cyril has already started working as a Clerk for the Board of Trade.
We know that Cyril worked for the Labour Department, so he would have worked at the local Norwich Labour Exchange. These government funded bodies were newly set up under the Labour Exchanges Act (1909) with the aim of finding employment ffor the unemployed.
Cyril’s WW1 service records are one of only about a third of WW1 military papers to survive following WW2 bombing raid on the building housing the archives. From these papers we know that he enlisted on 19 January 1915 in Norwich giving his address as 8, Hanover Road, Brunswick Road, Norwich and his age as 21. He is described as being 5ft 6 and quarter inches tall Cyril enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps.
During WW1, the ASC operated transport systems delivering logistical supplies such as ammunition, food and equipment to the front line and using a range of transport methods such as motor vehicles, rail and also pack camels (in Egypt).
According to his papers he served in England up until 29 June 1915. He was then sent with the British Expeditionary Force to Egypt and served overseas from 30 June 1915 until his death on 19 April 1916. He died on active military service of smallpox. Infectious diseases and war go hand in hand and despite a widespread vaccination programme of soldiers, death from smallpox and other infections still resulted in deaths. The image below shows the incidence of the main infectious diseases in the Egyptian Expeditionary Force between 1916 and 1918 (as detailed in research conducted by Roger W Byard published in the Forensic Science, Medicine and Pathology journal.
Cyril is buried in Cairo War Memorial Cemetery (where he is one of over 2000 Commonwealth casualties who were buried there during WW1). He is also remembered on two Civil Service War Memorials – the Board of Trade War Memorial and the Memorial to the Staff of the Ministry of Labour. In his home town of Norwich, he is one of 164 men named on a WW1 war memorial organ located in Heigham Holy Trinity Church.
Board of Trade War Memorial 