Frederick Beaumont-Nesbitt

Major-General Frederick George Beaumont-Nesbitt CVO CBE MC (26 March 1893 – 14 December 1971) was an officer of the British Army from 1912 until 1945. He served as a captain in the First World War, and was Director of Military Intelligence from the start of the Second World War until December 1940.

Military career

Beaumont-Nesbitt was the son of Edward John Downing Beaumont-Nesbitt, DL, and Helen Thomas.^[1] He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards in 1912.^[2] He was promoted from second lieutenant to lieutenant on 5 August 1914,^[3] and to captain in 1915, then serving as adjutant at the Divisional Base Depot.^[2]

From 3 November 1915^[4] until 16 August 1916^[5] he served as aide-de-camp to General Richard Haking, the Commander of the 11th Army Corps, finally returning to his regiment on 16 September 1916.^[6] On 8 May 1917 he was seconded to the staff as a General Staff Officer, Grade 3,^[7] serving with the 4th Army.^[2] On 24 March 1918 he was appointed brigade major^[8] of the 3rd Guards Brigade.^[2]

From February 1919 he served as the adjutant of a Dispersal Unit^[9] (overseeing the demobilization of conscripts^[10]), until on 29 May 1919 he was appointed a Staff Captain^[11] in the 2nd Guards Brigade.^[2] In December 1919 Beaumont-Nesbitt was awarded the Military Cross.^[12]

He spent a year as an instructor in English at a French military school, before returning to his regiment in August 1921^[13] to serve as adjutant until August 1922.^[14] In November 1922 Beaumont-Nesbitt was attached to the War Office as a General Staff Officer, 3rd Grade,^[15][16] and was promoted to the rank of major on 2 February 1924.^[17] On 6 June 1924 he left the staff^[18] only to return on 1 September 1926, as a General Staff Officer, 2nd Grade,^[19] and served there until 1 September 1930.^[20]

He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel on 22 May 1932,^[21] and commanded the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, until 1935.^[2] On 1 February 1936 he was appointed military attaché in Paris (as a General Staff Officer, 1st Grade, on half-pay)^[22] with the brevet rank of colonel.^[23] He was promoted to colonel on 22 May 1936, with seniority backdated to 1 February.^[24] He was later made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.

On 29 August 1938 Beaumont-Nesbitt was appointed the Deputy Director of Military Intelligence at the War Office, and granted the temporary rank of brigadier.^[25] On the day following the declaration of war, 4 September 1939, he was made an acting major-general,^[26] and took over as Director of Military Intelligence after the former incumbent Henry Pownall was appointed Chief of Staff of the British Expeditionary Force. On 4 September 1940 he received the temporary rank of major-general.^[27] Beaumont-Nesbitt relinquished the position of DMI on 16 December 1940.^[28]

On 15 January 1941 Beaumont-Nesbitt was re-granted the temporary rank of major general,^[29] to serve as a military attaché, and from 15 June 1941^[30] as a member of the British Army Staff, in Washington DC.^[2] Between 1943 and 1945 he was on active service in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy,^[2] receiving a mention in despatches on 6 April 1944 for "gallant and distinguished services in the Middle East"^[31] and also being made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. In 1944 he was appointed an aide-de-camp to King George VI ^[2] serving until September 1945.^[32] He ended the war as a liaison officer on the staff of Field Marshal Harold Alexander, Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean.^[2]

Beaumont-Nesbitt left the Army in late 1945,^[2] but remained in the Reserve of Officers until reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60 on 24 March 1953.^[33] He was appointed a Gentleman Usher to the Queen in November 1959,^[34] and serving until April 1967.^[35]

Major-General Beaumont-Nesbitt died on 14 December 1971.^[36]

Personal life

In 1915 he married Cecilia Mary Lavinia Bingham (1893–1920), the daughter of Major-General the Honourable Sir Cecil Edward Bingham. They had two children; David Frederick John Beaumont-Nesbitt, (1916–1972) and Audrey Helen Anne Beaumont-Nesbitt, (1919–2009).^[37] In 1928 he married the Honourable Ruby Hardinge (1897–1977), the daughter of Henry Charles Hardinge, 3rd Viscount Hardinge, and they had three further children; June Rose Beaumont-Nesbitt (1929–), Dermot Beaumont-Nesbitt, (1931–), and Brian Beaumont-Nesbitt, (1932–).^[1][38]

References