a large fortune at a comparatively early age, he came to England in 1910, and stood successfully for the House of Commons as Unionist candidate for Ashton-under-Lyne. He was from the first an intimate friend and adviser of Mr. Bonar Law when the latter became the Unionist leader. In 1911 he was knighted. In 1915 he went to France with the Canadian expeditionary force as “Eye-Witness,” and in 1916 became the representative of the Canadian Government at the front, also doing valuable propaganda work. He was created a baronet in June 1916, and the same year was raised to the peerage. In 1917 he was appointed officer in charge of the Canadian war records, and in 1918 entered the Government as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in succession to Lord Cawley and director of the Ministry of Information in succession to Sir Edward Carson, but resigned in Oct. of the same year. Lord Beaverbrook became one of the chief proprietors of the London Daily Express, and in 1916–7 published Canada in Flanders.
BEBEL, FERDINAND AUGUST (1840–1913), German socialist (see 3.601). During Bebel’s last years his views regarding
the revision of the Social Democratic programme underwent a
considerable change; he ultimately favoured revision in the
sense of coöperation with non-Socialist political parties in
democratic reforms. In the Reichstag he continued to oppose
with great energy the world-policy and the naval expansion with
which William II. and his successive chancellors were identified.
At the same time he guarded himself against the reproach of
favouring a policy of non-resistance to foreign aggression, and
on one occasion declared that he would be the first to shoulder
his rifle if Germany were invaded. His attitude towards imperial
and autocratic Russia was throughout uncompromising. He
denounced the complaisance of Prince Bülow’s Government
towards the Russian Government in respect of the treatment of
Russian political refugees, and it would hardly be too much to
say that he would have welcomed a rupture with Russia on
almost any ground. His influence in this regard powerfully
contributed to foster those sentiments in the Social
Democratic party which led it, a year after his death, to acclaim the
declaration of war against Russia on Aug. 1 1914. In internal
affairs he particularly distinguished himself by his
denunciation of the maltreatment of soldiers by officers and
still more frequently by non-commissioned officers. His efforts
in this matter had received great encouragement when Albert
of Saxony (1828–1902) issued an edict dealing with the
maltreatment of soldiers in the Saxon contingent, thus cutting the
ground from under the feet of the Imperial Government, which
had persistently attempted to deny or to explain away the
cases adduced by Bebel. Bebel had amassed a fortune—some
£30,000, it is said—from the proceeds of his writings, and this
was increased by a legacy of some £20,000 left him, curiously
enough, by an officer who had profited by his advice in a
disciplinary case in which the officer had once been involved. He
owned a villa on the Lake of Zurich where in later life he spent
a great part of the year. One of his last public appearances
was at an International Peace Conference at Bern in 1913.
He died at a sanatorium at Passuggin, Switzerland, on Aug. 13
1913.
BECK, FRIEDRICH, Count (1830–1920), Austrian general, was born at Freiburg im Breisgau, and entered the army in
1848. He distinguished himself as chief-of-staff of an infantry
division at Magenta, and in 1863 was made personal aide-de-camp
to the Emperor. He held this position, with that of
adjutant-general and chief of the imperial military chancery until
1882, winning the Emperor’s confidence and exercising the
greatest influence on all military questions. In 1866 he acted as
the Emperor’s confidential agent at the headquarters of
Field-Marshal Benedek, before and after the battle of Königgrätz,
and his advice was of great importance, though it was not
always followed. In 1878 he was entrusted with a similar
mission to the commander-in-chief of the troops operating in Bosnia.
In 1882 he was made chief of the general staff of the Imperial
and Royal army, an exalted position which he occupied till
1906. Not only was his advice listened to in military affairs,
but he frequently exercised great influence on important political
and personal questions, gaining a great reputation throughout
the monarchy as one of its most influential men. His clear
judgment and practical common-sense enabled him to see and
judge men and things from a purely objective standpoint. He
was retired at the age of 77, with every possible sign of honour,
and was appointed commander of the Imperial Guard. He took
no part in the World War, and died in Feb. 1920. (A. K.)
BECKWITH, J(AMES) CARROLL (1852–1917), American portrait painter (see 3.610[1]). He exhibited at St. Louis in 1904
“The Nautilus” and a portrait of Mrs. Beckwith. Yale, Johns
Hopkins, and West Point possess examples of his works, and
the New York Public Library has a collection of his crayon
and pencil drawings. He died in New York, Oct. 24 1917.
BEECHAM, SIR THOMAS, 2nd Bart. (1879–), English
musical conductor, was born April 29 1879, son of Sir Joseph
Beecham, 1st bart. (1848–1916), who had made a large fortune
at St. Helens, Lancs., as proprietor of “Beecham’s
Pills.” Young Beecham was educated at Rossall and for a
time at Wadham College, Oxford. His father was keenly interested
in music and had given financial support to a number of
musical enterprises in the North of England, where the son
acquired considerable experience as a conductor. In 1905 he
gave his first concert in London with the Queen’s Hall orchestra.
A little later he founded first the New Symphony orchestra
and next the Beecham orchestra, both first-rate concerns. In
1909 he appeared in London as opera conductor, and in Feb.
of the following year the Beecham Opera Co., consisting entirely
of English-speaking singers, was inaugurated. The season was
started at Covent Garden in the following year when among
other operas produced for the first time in London were Strauss’s
Elektra (Feb. 1910), Delius’s Romeo and Juliet in the Village
and Debussy’s L’Enfant Prodigue. In the same year there was
a further season at His Majesty’s theatre during which Strauss’s
Feuersnot was given, its London première. Further London
seasons followed in later years, all with decided artistic success.
These led up to the great climax when in 1913 the Beecham season
of opera and ballet at Covent Garden included the production
of Strauss’s Rosenkavalier and The Legend of Joseph.
Later in the same year there was a magnificent season at Drury
Lane of Russian opera and ballet, made famous not only by the
splendour of the productions of Russian opera in the vernacular,
which in all probability would never otherwise have been
heard in London, but by the remarkable singing and still more
remarkable acting of Shaliapin, who then made his first appearance
in England. During the second and third years of the
World War there were Beecham seasons of opera at the Shaftesbury
and Aldwych theatres, when pronounced success was
achieved by performances of Valkyrie and Tristan and Isolde
sung in English. Beecham’s own version of Bach’s cantata
Phoebus and Pan was given at the latter theatre. In 1917 the
Beecham Opera Co. were once more at Drury Lane, and in
1920 Beecham organized a somewhat ill-starred cosmopolitan
“grand” season at Covent Garden, during which Puccini's so-called
triptych, Il Tabarro, Suor Angelica and Gianni Schicchi,
was given for the first time in Great Britain. From 1915 to
1918 Beecham was conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Society,
whose very existence during the World War he practically
guaranteed. In 1916 he was knighted, and shortly afterwards
he succeeded to his father’s baronetcy. The lavish expenditure
of his private fortune upon opera in English ultimately led to
financial embarrassments which in 1920–1 necessitated the suspension
of his musical activities.
BEECHING, HENRY CHARLES (1859–1919), English divine
and author (see 3.640), who was appointed dean of Norwich
in 1911, died at Norwich Feb. 25 1919.
BEERBOHM, MAX (1872–), English writer and caricaturist,
was born in London Aug. 24 1872, the son of Julius
Beerbohm and Eliza Draper, and half-brother of the actor,
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree. He was educated at Charterhouse
and Merton College, Oxford, and afterwards became
well known as a contributor to the Yellow Book and dramatic
- ↑ These figures indicate the volume and page number of the previous article.
