Becks tragic family secret revealed
January 18th, 2009 - 6:14 pm ICT by ANI
London, Jan.18 (ANI): David Beckhams family was hit by tragedy when nine members of a scout patrol died when their boat capsized.
According to the Daily Star, the football stars great-grandfather Edward Beckham and brothers William and John were involved in that disaster that shocked the nation in 1912.
The secret came to light when the 1911 census was made available on the Internet for the first time last week.
The boys were part of the 2nd Walworth Scout Troop on an expedition from London to the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, when their 32ft naval cutter sank in a freak storm.
The boys were swept overboard and Edward cheated death by being plucked from the waves preserving the family line that produced the England midfielder.
Twelve-year-old William Beckham, the leader of the patrol, however, died with eight other scouts.
Such was the harrowing events impact that Winston Churchill, then First Lord of the Admiralty, ordered a destroyer to return the bodies to London.
And more than a million people lined the route of the funeral procession in South London.
William Beckham and the other boys were buried in Nunhead Cemetery, south London, where a memorial to them still stands. (ANI)
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