Beech Memorial installed

Lachlan Shire Council is pleased to announce that the William Beech monument has been completed and is now on exhibition at Memorial Park in time for ANZAC Day.

Sergeant William (Bill) Beech who settled in Condobolin in 1910, served with distinction in both the Boer War and World War One. He famously invented the Trench Periscope Rifle prototype whilst serving at Gallipoli in 1915. The periscope enabled soldiers to be protected from Turkish snipers from within the trench, earning him fame and the gratitude of his fellow soldiers.

“It took us a very short time to respect the Turkish … they were crack shots. One day using a biscuit box, [fence wire] and broken pieces of shaving mirror to form the trench periscope a rifleman can now see without exposing himself to the enemy,” Beech was reported as saying in the Sydney Morning Herald in 1915

Returning to Condobolin after his overseas service, Beech became a recruitment officer until 1919. He settled on the property “Reefdale” and resumed his trade as a bricklayer where he constructed many houses, the Melrose Hotel, the Chinese ceremonial oven in Condobolin Cemetery, the Oxley Monument, and his family home at 206 Bathurst Street.

The Anzac Commemorative Medal was posthumously given to Beech in 1967.