Joseph Beeston served as Honorary Captain in the Australian Army Medical Staff Corps from 1891 and enlisted on the outbreak of war in September 1914. As Lieutenant Colonel he was Officer in charge of the 4th Field Ambulance at Gallipoli and was awarded the C.M.G. and V.D. He contracted malaria and was invalided to Wandsworth Hospital, London, and upon recovery served as Assistant Director of Medical Services to the 2nd Division. In 1916 he returned to Australia and wrote Five Months at Anzac : A Narrative of Personal Experiences of the Officer Commanding the 4th Field Ambulance, Australian Imperial Force. He died in 1921. (Source: Cobbers : Stories of Gallipoli 1915. Sydney: ABC Books, 2005, p.6)
