W. W. Hicks Beach Explained

W. W. Hicks Beach should not be confused with William Frederick Hicks-Beach.

Major William Whitehead Hicks Beach (23 March 1907 – 1 January 1975) was a Conservative politician in the United Kingdom. He was Member of Parliament for Cheltenham from 1950 to 1964 and was also an Alderman of Cheltenham Borough Council.

Life

The son of Ellis Hicks Beach (1874–1943) by his marriage to Nancy Whitehead, he was the grandson of William Frederick Hicks-Beach (1841–1923), a younger brother of Michael Hicks Beach, 1st Earl St Aldwyn.^{[1] [2]}

He was promoted to Captain in the Territorial Army Royal Armoured Corps ^[3]

On 12 September 1939 Hicks-Beach married Diana Hoare (1911–2002), a daughter of Christopher "Kit" Gurney Hoare, the chairman of stockbrokers Hoare & Co.^[4] they had two daughters, Elizabeth (later Mrs Hinson) and Rosemary (later Mrs Naylor), and one son, Mark Hicks Beach (1943–1998).

He is buried in the churchyard of St Mary's, Great Witcombe, Gloucestershire.^[5]

A road on the Hesters Way housing estate in Cheltenham is named after him.

Notes

1. http://www.rootsandleaves.com/family/Burke%27s/SAINT%20ALDWYN.htm Burke's Peerage: Earl Saint Aldwyn entry
2. at kittybrewster.com, retrieved 2 October 2008
3. 1 September 1939 . Territorial Army . London Gazette . Supplement:34668 . 6053.
4. Web site: Hoare, Christopher [Kit] Gurney]. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. 23 September 2004.
5. http://www.wishful-thinking.org.uk/genuki/GLS/GreatWitcombe/MIs.html Some Memorial Inscriptions, Great Witcombe, Gloucestershire