Frederick Beaumont-Nesbitt

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Frederick George Beaumont-Nesbitt
Sketch of Beaumont-Nesbitt in 1940
Sketch of Beaumont-Nesbitt in 1940.
Born(1893-03-26)26 March 1893
Died14 December 1971(1971-12-14) (aged 78)
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Service/branchBritish Army
Years of service1912–1945
RankMajor-General
Service number1138
UnitGrenadier Guards
Commands held2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards (1932–1935)
Director of Military Intelligence (1939–1940)
Battles/warsWorld War I
World War II
Awards

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[edit]

Beaumont-Nesbitt was the son of Edward 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][4]

From 3 November 1915[5] until 16 August 1916[6] 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.[7] On 8 May 1917 he was seconded to the staff as a General Staff Officer, Grade 3,[8] serving with the 4th Army.[2] On 24 March 1918 he was appointed brigade major[9] of the 3rd Guards Brigade.[2]

From February 1919 he served as the adjutant of a Dispersal Unit[10] (overseeing the demobilization of conscripts[11]), until on 29 May 1919 he was appointed a Staff Captain[12] in the 2nd Guards Brigade.[2] In December 1919 Beaumont-Nesbitt was awarded the Military Cross.[13]

He spent a year as an instructor in English at a French military school, before returning to his regiment in August 1921[14] to serve as adjutant until August 1922.[15][4] In November 1922 Beaumont-Nesbitt was attached to the War Office as a General Staff Officer, 3rd Grade,[16][17] and was promoted to the rank of major on 2 February 1924.[18] On 6 June 1924 he left the staff[19] only to return on 1 September 1926, as a General Staff Officer, 2nd Grade,[20] and served there until 1 September 1930.[21]

He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel on 22 May 1932,[22] 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, or GSO1, on half-pay)[23] with the brevet rank of colonel.[24] He was promoted to colonel on 22 May 1936, with seniority backdated to 1 February.[25] He was later made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order. He then attended the Imperial Defence College, where Richard O'Connor was a fellow student.[26]

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.[27] On the day following the declaration of war, 4 September 1939, he was made an acting major-general,[28] 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.[29] Beaumont-Nesbitt relinquished the position of DMI on 16 December 1940.[30]

On 15 January 1941 Beaumont-Nesbitt was re-granted the temporary rank of major general,[31] to serve as a military attaché, and from 15 June 1941[32] 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"[33] 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.[34] 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.[35] He was appointed a Gentleman Usher to the Queen in November 1959,[36] and serving until April 1967.[37]

Major-General Beaumont-Nesbitt died on 14 December 1971.[38]

Personal life[edit]

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).[39] 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, (1931–2016), and Brian Beaumont-Nesbitt, (1932–).[1][40]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition. Vol. 2. Wilmington, Delaware: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd. p. 2423.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Nesbitt, Frederick George Beaumont (1893–1971), Major General". King's College London: Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  3. ^ "No. 28890". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 September 1914. p. 6980.
  4. ^ a b Smart 2005, p. 26.
  5. ^ "No. 29382". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 November 1915. p. 11875.
  6. ^ "No. 29726". The London Gazette (Supplement). 25 August 1916. p. 8483.
  7. ^ "No. 29804". The London Gazette (Supplement). 27 October 1916. p. 10422.
  8. ^ "No. 30155". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 June 1917. p. 6383.
  9. ^ "No. 30644". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 April 1918. p. 4840.
  10. ^ "No. 31362". The London Gazette (Supplement). 27 May 1919. p. 6598.
  11. ^ Baker, Chris (2010). "Demobilisation and discharge". The Long, Long Trail: The British Army in the Great War of 1914–1918. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  12. ^ "No. 31431". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 July 1919. p. 8364.
  13. ^ "No. 31684". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 December 1919. p. 15438.
  14. ^ "No. 32470". The London Gazette (Supplement). 27 September 1921. p. 7631.
  15. ^ "No. 32744". The London Gazette. 5 September 1922. p. 6441.
  16. ^ "No. 32769". The London Gazette. 21 November 1922. p. 8214.
  17. ^ "No. 32772". The London Gazette. 1 December 1922. p. 8521.
  18. ^ "No. 32903". The London Gazette. 1 February 1924. p. 956.
  19. ^ "No. 32943". The London Gazette. 6 June 1924. p. 4525.
  20. ^ "No. 33200". The London Gazette. 10 September 1926. p. 5909.
  21. ^ "No. 33641". The London Gazette. 5 September 1930. p. 5491.
  22. ^ "No. 33828". The London Gazette. 24 May 1932. p. 3348.
  23. ^ "No. 34256". The London Gazette. 18 February 1936. p. 1058.
  24. ^ "No. 34258". The London Gazette. 21 February 1936. p. 1164.
  25. ^ "No. 34286". The London Gazette. 22 May 1936. p. 3295.
  26. ^ Army, Great Britain (December 1935). "The Monthly Army List".
  27. ^ "No. 34547". The London Gazette. 2 September 1938. p. 5605.
  28. ^ "No. 34680". The London Gazette. 12 September 1939. p. 6239.
  29. ^ "No. 34936". The London Gazette (Supplement). 30 August 1940. p. 5327.
  30. ^ "No. 35021". The London Gazette (Supplement). 20 December 1940. p. 7203.
  31. ^ "No. 35059". The London Gazette. 28 January 1941. p. 616.
  32. ^ "No. 35259". The London Gazette (Supplement). 26 August 1941. p. 5006.
  33. ^ "No. 36456". The London Gazette (Supplement). 4 April 1944. p. 1589.
  34. ^ "No. 37297". The London Gazette (Supplement). 5 October 1945. p. 4935.
  35. ^ "No. 39832". The London Gazette (Supplement). 21 April 1953. p. 2257.
  36. ^ "No. 41865". The London Gazette. 10 November 1959. p. 7091.
  37. ^ "No. 44282". The London Gazette. 4 April 1967. p. 3695.
  38. ^ "No. 45565". The London Gazette. 4 January 1972. p. 166.
  39. ^ Freer, Alan. "The Descendants of William the Conqueror (p.117)". william1.co.uk. Retrieved 15 March 2014.
  40. ^ Freer, Alan. "The Descendants of William the Conqueror (p.114)". william1.co.uk. Retrieved 15 March 2014.

Bibliography[edit]

External links[edit]

Military offices
Preceded by
Henry Pownall
(As Director of Military Operations and Intelligence)
 Director of Military Intelligence
1939–1940 		Succeeded by
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