He attend school at the South African College and went on to study at the University of the Cape of Good Hope, where he graduated in 1874.
[1] In 1898[1] or 1899, a bill initially sponsored by Sir Gordon Sprigg, but now championed by Prime Minister William Philip Schreiner, enlarged the Cape House of Assembly by 15 members, one seat of which represented the constituency of Worcester.
[1] Beck once joined John Xavier Merriman, Jan Christiaan Smuts and James Barry Munnik Hertzog on a trek to visit Robertson.
He contested the race for the President of the Senate with Francis William Reitz (another former president of the Orange Free State), with Reitz winning the election after Beck withdrew as a favor to William Philip Schreiner.
It was thought that one of the former leaders of the Boer republics should lead the Senate for symbolic and sentimental reasons.
[8] William Charles Scully wrote that "there was an urgent need for the extension of postal, telegraph and telephone facilities," but the Second World War made the necessary material expensive and difficult to obtain.