St. Mary’s vicar, Arthur Adam Taylor Crosse, writes in the Waxham Deanery Magazines, June 1917:

“Harold Beckett, who was a leading signalman on the destroyer, H.M.S. Derwent, lost his life by a mine explosion in the Channel. I first remember him a curly-headed little boy in our Sunday School, and he and I were always real friends. He joined the Navy at an early age, and was a fine type of a British sailor - genial, merry and full of pluck, and with a great gift of humour - and he will be missed by hosts of friends. He belongs to a family that have been long connected with this parish and Church. His father was much respected as one of our leading tradesmen, and was for many years parish clerk, and only resigned the office owing to ill health. Harold Beckett leaves behind him a widow and little daughter, and I know that there is no one in this parish who does not feel for them most deeply in this terrible bereavement. May God comfort all such whom war makes desolate and broken hearted.”

David Belsten