Beaucourt and neighbouring Beaumont-Hamel finally fell during The Battle of The Ancre, launched on 13th November 1916. The Royal Naval Division fought along and parallel to the Hamel-Beaucourt road and the railway line, through thick belts of German barbed wire and entrenchments. It is somewhere close to here that the Australian-born composer Frederick Kelly was killed whilst rushing a German machine gun position. Kelly had been a close friend of Rupert Brooke, had been a member of his burial party on Skyros in 1915, and his hauntingly beautiful pastoral piece Elegy for String Orchestra was written in memory of his friend. Also amongst the same burial party the previous year had been Bernard Freyberg, who won the VC for his bravery here at Beaucourt Station, continuing to direct the battle despite having been seriously wounded by machine gun fire. In another war the much-wounded Freyberg was to lead the ill-fated British defence of Greece and Crete, and would go on, as General Lord Freyburg VC, to become Governor General of New Zealand. He was amongst the most decorated servicemen of The Great War.

Elegy for String Orchestra, In Memoriam Rupert Brooke, by Frederick Septimus Kelly