John Beckett

John Stewart Beckett (5 February 1927 – 5 February 2007) was an Irish musician, composer and conductor; cousin of the famous writer and playwright Samuel Beckett. Youth and education John and his twin sister Ann were born in Sandymount, Dublin to Gerald and Peggy Beckett. Gerald, brother of Bill Beckett (Samuel Beckett's father), studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and became County Medical Officer for Wicklow. Gerald Beckett played rugby for Ireland, and captained a golf club. A quiet man with wide interests, he was quite irreligious, with a dry sense of humour, describing life as "a disease of matter". He was very musical and enjoyed playing piano duets with a friend, David Owen Williams, who later became a director in the Guinness Brewery, and his son, John, and his nephew, Samuel Beckett. John's twin Ann later pioneered the profession of occupational therapy in Ireland becoming the country's first professionally qualified practitioner. and his older brother Peter became the first Professor of Psychiatry in Trinity College Dublin and later the Dean of Medicine at Trinity.