Joan Besford (née Matthews) (1921–2019)
Joan Matthews was born in Haltwhistle, Northumberland. She married David Besford four years after the start of the Second World War.
Military
Besfords have served in the British Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force, and one in the Union Army in the American Civil War. Most of those with articles here served in the First World War, several of them in the Northumberland Fusiliers.
George Besford (1893–1966)
George Besford was born in Amble, Northumberland. He lost his leg in the Battle of the Somme, and later worked in the lamp cabin at Woodhorn Colliery, Ashington.
Harry Hornsby (1909–1992)
Henry Charles Deamster Hornsby was a wireless engineer and amateur radio enthusiast, who served with the Royal Air Force in the Middle East.
David Besford (1897–1991)
David Besford was injured fighting in the First World War. He and his family emigrated from the UK to Australia in 1925, where he worked as a mines inspector.
George Bestford (1897–1968)
George Bestford was born at Bensham, Gateshead. He served in the First World War, and later moved to Pretoria where he joined the South African Police.
William James Besford (1889–1947)
William James Besford, a Lowestoft trawler skipper who helped clear mines off the Belgian coast in the First World War, was lost with the Bucentaur and all her crew in 1947.
Matthew Wilkinson Bestford (1892–1978)
Matthew Wilkinson Bestford was wounded serving in the First World War. He and his family lived in Australia for six years.
Charles Herbert Besford
Charles Herbert Besford was working as a butcher’s boy in Heaton when the First World War broke out. He joined the Royal Navy and remained a reservist following his return to civilian life.
William Bestford (1862–1922)
William Bestford was born near Blaydon in 1862. He served in India with the Northumberland Fusiliers, then worked as a coal miner around Winlaton, and died in Newcastle in 1922.
Thomas Bestford
Thomas Bestford volunteered for the 9th Pennsylvania Cavalry in 1861 and deserted a year later, one of more than 200,000 Union soldiers who did.