Beckett was also a capable amateur boxer, holding the title of Royal Navy Heavyweight boxing champion for some time.

In Fabulous Admirals and some naval fragments published in 1957, Beckett is described as "an Elizabethan character, who was rough, tough, large and strong, and his words smelt of tar, spunyarn, sound commonsense and humour."

Prior to his military career Beckett's father William had been a senior Civil Engineer, working on behalf of the Indian government.

The family returned to Great Britain for the boys education, and lived near Grantown-on-Spey in Scotland, where Beckett loved wandering the hills and glens of Speyside.

When HMS Amphion, the first Royal Naval ship to be sunk during the First World War,[1] was going down, Beckett was aboard searching for survivors, and became the hero of a tale often told.

During his time on Legion, Beckett developed a reputation as an excellent seaman, and a practitioner of fine nautical skills and knot-work.

While Beckett was serving with the Harwich Force, he was befriended by the renowned English author Rudyard Kipling, and was invited to his home Bateman's, in East Sussex.

Kipling had previously based the character Findlayson, the hero of his story The Bridge Builders on Beckett's great uncle, the well known Indian bridge-builder Frederick Thomas Granville Walton.

[3] From April 1916 until the end of World War I, Beckett was employed in Coastal Motor Boats (CMB's), with a group of bright young officers known as the 'Suicide Club'.

The main armament was a single 18-inch (457 mm) torpedo in a trough abaft the cockpit (from which it was launched tail-first over the stern by a cordite-powered ram).

4, Beckett carried out duties of CMB Flotilla Signal Officer, and he trained personnel and conducted smoke trials and experiments.

14, the first of a larger-type CMB carrying four depth charges in addition to a torpedo: these boats were 55 feet (17 m) long, longer than the forty-foot original type.

The Bolsheviks were attacking the White Russians and Beckett was sent as Second-in-Command of CMB Flotilla – Dwina River Force, under Commander-in-Chief Admiral Sir John Green, with whom he began a long friendship.

Following the Russian action Beckett returned to Osea Island, but was soon made First Lieutenant of HMS Cockchafer, in which he proceeded to China to serve on the Yangtse River Patrol.

September 1924, Beckett was appointed in command of the destroyer HMS Vendetta, in the Mediterranean Sea, under Commander-in-Chief Admiral Sir Roger Keyes.

In October 1924, HMS Vendetta proceeded to the Red Sea and Beckett acted as Senior Naval Officer (SNO) at Jeddah during operations between Ibn Saud and Emir Ali, to safeguard British interests and property.

Beckett had one of his most pleasant duties in March and April 1925, when HMS Vendetta and another destroyer were chosen to accompany the Royal Yacht on a cruise of the Mediterranean.

In January 1939, Beckett was appointed Captain of Dockyard, Deputy Superintendent and King's Harbour Master of HMNB Devonport (HMS Drake).

During his time on the Dwina River in North Russia, he had been exposed to poison gas, that had caused damage to his chest and lungs, and while in CMB's he had received shrapnel in his left knee.

Beckett's wife Gladys Hemery died in 1964, and as of 2023[update] their daughter Rosemary Caroline Rowan lives with her husband and family in Queensland, Australia.