Subject

Faith

Text

This is the victory that overcometh the world

Inscription

A loving memorial to Robert and Mary Bodycomb, their children and descendants, also a great grandson Pilot Officer Edward Miles Beaumont

Description & History

The window was ordered from Brooks, Robinson & Co. by Captain Harold Beaumont of Stanley Street, Elsternwick on 20 October 1961. The firm used a cartoon for a window ordered by the Methodist Church, Yarra Street, Geelong earlier the same year. The female figure of Faith was depicted with lamp in one hand and cross in the other, thus illustrating the text taken from 1 John 5.4, and set into a painted diamond quarry background. It measurerd approximately 64 x 19 inches, the same size and with the same decorative canopy as The Great Physician (1924), Charity (1928) and The Good Samaritan(1954) all made by Brooks, Robinson & Co.

Edward Miles Beaumont was the younger son of Harold and Pearl Beaumont and brother of Bill and Margaret. Pilot Officer Beaumont was crew to Pilot Officer Melville Arthur Chaloner Olive when the Gypsy Moth A7-74 they were flying on a reconnaissance training flight crashed into the mouth of the Werribee River two miles south-west of the Point Cook Aerodrome at 1233 hours on 28 January 1942. A preliminary report found the cause of the accident to be 'obscure'. Beaumont and Olive had similar careers: both were Empire Air Training Scheme trainees who were posted to the General Reconnaissance School, Laverton on the same day and both were granted commission on 12 January 1942; both men were married. Olive was 24 years old when he was killed and Beaumont 21 years old. Pilot Officer Beaumont was buried in Burwood General Cemetery, Victoria; his great-grandparents came from the Dromana district.

References & Acknowledgements

AWM Roll of Honour: NAA: A705, 163/23/102; NAA: A9845,73; Argus, 31 January 1942, p.3; Queensland Times, 30 January 1942, p.6; Morning Bulletin, 30 January 1942, p.5; Rosemary Kerr, St. Mark's in Time, Red Hill Press, Dromana, 1992.