British Beach-Master
From Mr John F. Barron Sir: John Keegan (The threat from Europe', 24 March) quotes Denis Healey as saying that 'Beach-Master' was an Alfieri can title, the British title being 'Military Landing Officer'.
'Beach-Master', however, was used in the British navy and army 200 years ago. In The Life and Adventures of John Nicol, Mariner, written in 1822, Nicol, who was a seaman, describes the dawn landing of troops for the siege of Alexandria in or about 1800:
We then sailed (from Rhodes) to Alexandria and landed the troops. I belonged to one of the boats. Captain A.F. Cochrane (of the Ajax) was beach-master and had the ordering of the troops in the landing„ . Each boat carried one hundred men and did not draw nine inches of water. . .. We landed eight thousand men the first morning. We had good sport at landing the troops as the Frenchmen made a stout resistance.
John F. Barron
Inverness
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