{{Short description|British officer of the Royal Air Force}} {{Use dmy dates|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = Wing Commander | name = Clive Beadon | honorific_suffix = DFC | image = | caption = | birth_date = 15 April 1919 | birth_place = Coonoor, India, British Empire | death_date = {{death date and age|1996|9|14|1919|4|15|df=yes}} | death_place = Windsor, Berkshire, England | occupation = Military officer, dowser | education = Imperial Service College<br />Royal Air Force College Cranwell | spouse = {{marriage|Jane Corby Whigham|1965}} | children = | parents = | relatives = | allegiance = {{flagu|United Kingdom}} | branch = {{flagu|United Kingdom}} Royal Air Force | service_years = 1939–1966 | rank = Wing Commander | commands = No. 502 Squadron RAF<br />No. 297 Squadron RAF | battles = Mediterranean and Middle East theatre of World War II<br />Burma campaign | awards = Distinguished Flying Cross<br />War Medal 1939-1945<br />1939-1945 Star<br />Atlantic Star<br />Defense Medal<br />Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal<br />Air Force Cross of Aeronautical Merit }} Wing Commander '''Clive Vernon Beadon''' {{post-nominals |post-noms= DFC}} (15 April 1919 – 14 September 1996) was a British dowser, diplomat, and officer in the Royal Air Force.
== Biography == Clive Vernon Beadon was born on 15 April 1919 in Coonoor, British India, the son of a British soldier.<ref name= Times/><ref name= herald/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.onthisday.com/date/1919/april|title=What Happened in April 1919|website=OnThisDay.com|date=April 1919 }}</ref>
Beadon graduated from the Imperial Service College and was offered a scholarship to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst.<ref name= armed/><ref name= buffalo/> Against his father's wishes, he declined acceptance to Sandhurst, instead choosing to train as a pilot at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell.<ref name= buffalo/><ref name= Times/><ref name= armed/> He was commissioned into the Royal Air Force a few months before the outbreak of World War II in 1939, serving first in the No. 502 Squadron RAF.<ref name= buffalo/><ref name= armed>{{Cite web|url=https://www.armedconflicts.com/Beadon-Clive-Vernon-t97622|title=Beadon, Clive Vernon|website=Armedconflicts.com|date=11 June 2010 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/37228/supplement/4187/data.pdf |title=Supplement to the London Gazette |date=17 August 1945 |issue=37228}}</ref> At the end of 1940 he was transferred to be an instructor at the Central Flying School.<ref name= armed/> In August 1942 he was sent to the Middle East.<ref name= armed/> Later that year he was transferred to Southeast Asia, where he flew Consolidated B-24 Liberator and Vickers Wellington bombers in hundreds of missions against the Japanese.<ref name= buffalo/>
In 1944, Beadon flew a Liberator at low level to bomb Japanese supply trains on the Bangkok–Chiang Mai railway in Thailand.<ref name= buffalo/> After his aircraft was hit by Japanese anti-aircraft guns that killed his gunner, he flew the burning aircraft over one thousand miles back to a British airbase in India,<ref name= buffalo/><ref name= herald/> saving the lives of his remaining crewmen, whose parachutes had been destroyed by the fire.<ref name= buffalo/><ref name= Times/> Beadon was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for merit by King George VI in 1945, in addition to campaign medals the Atlantic Star, the Defence Medal (United Kingdom), the War Medal, and the Burma Star.<ref name= buffalo/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/os-xpm-1996-09-16-9609150727-story.html|title=- CLIVE BEADON|website=Orlando Sentinel|date=16 September 1996 }}</ref><ref name= armed/>
After the war ended, Beadon held positions at RAF Bomber Command and the Air Ministry.<ref name= armed/> In 1950, he was appointed as a commanding officer of No. 297 Squadron RAF.<ref name= armed/> He was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Coronation Medal by Elizabeth II during the 1953 Coronation Honours.<ref name= armed/>
In 1953 the British government sent Beadon on a mission to Entebbe to abduct Mutesa II of Buganda.<ref name= buffalo/><ref name= Times/><ref name= herald/> The British claimed they feared that the Bugandan king was in danger of being killed by his political opponents.<ref name= buffalo/><ref name= Times/><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/1996/09/17/deaths/8f0e5451-8063-4de0-aa86-0577d1d9d0ff/ |title=Deaths |date=17 September 1996 |newspaper=The Washington Post |access-date=26 April 2022}}</ref> In reality, Ugandan Colonial Governor Sir Andrew Cohen deposed the king and ordered his exile to London since Mutesa II demanded that Buganda be separated from the rest of the Protectorate of Uganda and be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Foreign Office when the Parliament of Buganda sought independence.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gunther |first=John |title=Inside Africa |publisher=The Reprint Society | year=1957 |page=438 }}</ref><ref name= armed/> Beadon kept the engines of his aircraft running while his air force colleagues covered the king's head with a blanket and dragged him on board while he protested.<ref name= buffalo/><ref name= Times/> When they landed in the United Kingdom, Beadon apologized to Mutesa II for his methods of rescue and bowed before him.<ref name= buffalo/>
From 1954 to 1957 he served as an air attaché in Caracas, and in the 1960s he served as an air attaché in Paris.<ref name= armed/> He was awarded the Air Force Cross of Aeronautical Merit by President Gustavo Rojas Pinilla of Colombia for his service in the 1950s.<ref name= armed/>
In February 1965 Beadon married Scottish heiress and socialite Jane Corby Whigham, the widowed stepmother of Margaret Campbell, Duchess of Argyll,<ref name= herald>{{Cite news|url=https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/12028064.courage-of-a-burma-ace/|title=Courage of a Burma ace|date=16 September 1996|newspaper=Herald Scotland}}</ref> at Carlton Hall in London.<ref name= apnews/><ref name= buffalo/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.topfoto.co.uk/asset/3379983/|title=TopFoto}}</ref> They honeymooned at the mansion of her late husband, George Hay Whigham, in Cable Beach, Bahamas.<ref name= guardian>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/news/1999/jul/09/guardianobituaries|title=Jane Beadon|first=Michael|last=Thornton|date=9 July 1999|website=the Guardian}}</ref> He was Whigham's third husband and she was his second wife (his first wife had died of cancer in 1964).<ref name= apnews>{{Cite web|url=https://apnews.com/article/70bc3553c3a6671a51d5680b19205c9e|title=Divorce Trial Figure Beadon Dies|website=AP NEWS}}</ref><ref name= Times/><ref name= herald/> Beadon and his wife lived in Aboyne, then moved to Maidenhead in 1994.<ref name= herald/>
He retired from the Royal Air Force in 1966.<ref name= herald/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1996/09/16/british-wwii-bomber-pilot-and-hero/|title=British WWII bomber pilot and hero|website=Tampa Bay Times}}</ref>
A renowned dowser,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.carrowkeel.com/sites/boyne/newleylines.html|title=Energy lines at Newgrange|website=www.carrowkeel.com}}</ref> Beadon established a research program in 1979 to use "powerful magnetic energy" of natural gemstones to "rebalance all disruptions caused by geopathic stress".<ref name= bioenergy>{{cite web |url=https://bioenergyacademyofdublin.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/M5-Throat-Chakra-06102020.pdf |title=The Throat Chakra Module 5. |access-date=26 April 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://britishdowsing.net/great-dowsers-of-the-past-clive-beadon-part-2-the-energies-of-the-earth/|title=Great Dowsers of the Past – Clive Beadon Part 2: The Energies of the Earth – British Dowsing}}</ref> The program resulted in the creation of the pseudoscientific Spiral of Tranquility product range.<ref name= bioenergy/> He was a member of the British Society of Dowsers.<ref name= dowsing>{{Cite web|url=http://www.dowsing-research.net/blog/2020/06/19/the-beadon-cube-controversy/|title=The Beadon Cube controversy – Dowsing Blog|date=19 June 2020 }}</ref> Beadon, along with Geoffrey King, created a device called the Beadon cube, which was meant to remove harmful "Earth energies".<ref name= dowsing/>
Beadon, who suffered from Raynaud syndrome and a stroke, died after a long illness on 14 September 1996 at a hospital in Windsor, Berkshire.<ref name= buffalo>{{Cite web|url=https://buffalonews.com/news/wing-cmdr-clive-beadon-77-dies-decorated-british-wwii-bomber-pilot/article_a24135f1-23ff-5ae4-8098-bb109a51adc2.html|title=WING CMDR. CLIVE BEADON, 77, DIES; DECORATED BRITISH WWII BOMBER PILOT|website=Buffalo News|date=16 September 1996 }}</ref><ref name= Times>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/22/world/clive-beadon-77-a-daring-pilot-for-the-british-in-world-war-ii.html|url-status=live|url-access=subscription|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220425042303/https://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/22/world/clive-beadon-77-a-daring-pilot-for-the-british-in-world-war-ii.html|archive-date=25 April 2022|title=Clive Beadon, 77, a Daring Pilot For the British in World War II|work=The New York Times |agency=Associated Press|date=22 September 1996}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-wang-shoudao-1363615.html|title=Obituary: Wang Shoudao|date=15 September 1996|website=The Independent}}</ref>
== References == {{Reflist}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Beadon, Clive}} Category:1919 births Category:1996 deaths Category:Air attachés for the United Kingdom Category:British people in British India Category:British World War II bomber pilots Category:Civil servants in the Air Ministry Category:Dowsing Category:Graduates of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell Category:People educated at the Imperial Services College Category:People from Coonoor Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Flying Cross (United Kingdom) Category:Royal Air Force wing commanders Category:People from the Protectorate of Uganda Category:People from Aboyne Category:Military personnel of British India