Octavius Charles Beale (23 February 1850 – 16 December 1930) was an Irish-born Australian piano manufacturer and a philanthropist.[1]
Beale formed a company to import sewing machines and pianos in 1879, after which he established Australia's first piano factory in Annandale, 1893.[2] The factory ceased production in 1975.[3]
He served as president of the New South Wales Chamber of Commerce and a trustee of the Australian Museum, and the Bank of New South Wales (Westpac).[4]
In 1903, Beale was appointed one of twelve members of a Royal Commission into the decline of the birth rate in New South Wales. He later conducted, at his own expense, a Royal Commission of Inquiry into Secret Drugs, 1905-1910. The two-volume report records the criminal unscrupulousness of manufacturers and advertisers.
Marriage and family
Beale married Elizabeth (Lilly) Baily (1856 – 1901) at the Congregational Church, Woollahra, New South Wales, and they had twelve children. After Lily's death he married her sister Katherine on 4 March 1903. The children from the first marriage were:[5]
- Margaret Elizabeth (Mado) (1875–1964)
Margaret married the Rev A.P. Campbell OBE (1881–1963), a Congregational church minister and chairman of the Congregational Union of Australia and New Zealand from 1937 until 1939. They had a daughter and three sons.[6] - Lionel Charles (1877–1961)
- Ruth Beale (1879–1964)
- Reginald Hugo (1880–1924)
- Ronald Matheson (1882–1966)
- Edgar Francis (1884–1918)
- Rupert Octavius (1887–1957)
- Harold Strangman Beale (1889–1936)
Harold was educated at Newington College[7] commencing in 1904.[8] - Octavius Cyril Beale (1891–1969)
Cyril was educated at Newington College commencing in 1904. He was a Gunner in the 2nd Field Artillery Brigade serving during WWI from February until August 1917.[9] He married Alice Gertrude Marion Burford (1886–1925) on 11 November 1914. She was a daughter of William Burford of Adelaide. - Dr Hector Llewellyn Beale (1892–1959)
Hector was educated at Newington College commencing in 1904. He graduated MB ChM from the University of Sydney in 1916. He was a medical officer serving during WWI from 1917 until January 1919. He married Florence Henderson in Aberdeen.[10] - Hilda Dorothea Beale (1896–1970) married Reginald Thomas Lamble on 11 March 1924.[11]
- Mary Patricia Beale (1898–1972)
On his death in a motor vehicle accident in Stroud, New South Wales, Beale was survived by his second wife and ten of his 12 children.[12]