| Frederick George Beaumont-Nesbitt | |
| Birth Date: | 26 March 1893 |
| Birth Place: | Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland[1] |
| Death Place: | St Pancras, London, England |
| Allegiance: | United Kingdom |
| Branch: | British Army |
| Serviceyears: | 1912–1945 |
| Rank: | Major-General |
| Servicenumber: | 1138 |
| Unit: | Grenadier Guards |
| Commands: | 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards (1932–1935) Director of Military Intelligence (1939–1940) |
| Battles: | World War I World War II |
Major-General Frederick George Beaumont-Nesbitt (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.
Beaumont-Nesbitt was the son of Edward Beaumont-Nesbitt,, and Helen Thomas.[2] He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned into the Grenadier Guards in 1912.[3] He was promoted from second lieutenant to lieutenant on 5 August 1914, and to captain in 1915, then serving as adjutant at the Divisional Base Depot.[3]
From 3 November 1915 until 16 August 1916 he served as aide-de-camp to Lieutenant-General Richard Haking, then in command of the 11th Army Corps, finally returning to his regiment on 16 September 1916. On 8 May 1917 he was seconded to the staff as a General Staff Officer, Grade 3, serving with the 4th Army.[3] On 24 March 1918 he was appointed brigade major of the 3rd Guards Brigade.[3]
From February 1919 he served as the adjutant of a Dispersal Unit (overseeing the demobilization of conscripts[4]), until on 29 May 1919 he was appointed a Staff Captain in the 2nd Guards Brigade.[3] In December 1919 Beaumont-Nesbitt was awarded the Military Cross.
He spent a year as an instructor in English at a French military school, before returning to his regiment in August 1921 to serve as adjutant until August 1922. In November 1922 Beaumont-Nesbitt was attached to the War Office as a General Staff Officer, 3rd Grade, and was promoted to the rank of major on 2 February 1924. On 6 June 1924 he left the staff only to return on 1 September 1926, as a General Staff Officer, 2nd Grade, and served there until 1 September 1930.
He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel on 22 May 1932, and commanded the 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards, until 1935.[3] On 1 February 1936 he was appointed military attaché in Paris (as a General Staff Officer, 1st Grade, or GSO1, on half-pay) with the brevet rank of colonel. He was promoted to colonel on 22 May 1936, with seniority backdated to 1 February. 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.[5]
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. On the day following the declaration of war, 4 September 1939, he was made an acting major-general, 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. Beaumont-Nesbitt relinquished the position of DMI on 16 December 1940.
On 15 January 1941 Beaumont-Nesbitt was re-granted the temporary rank of major general, to serve as a military attaché, and from 15 June 1941 as a member of the British Army Staff, in Washington DC.[3] Between 1943 and 1945 he was on active service in the Middle East, North Africa and Italy,[3] receiving a mention in despatches on 6 April 1944 for "gallant and distinguished services in the Middle East" 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 [3] serving until September 1945. He ended the war as a liaison officer on the staff of Field Marshal Harold Alexander, Supreme Allied Commander Mediterranean.[3]
Beaumont-Nesbitt left the Army in late 1945,[3] but remained in the Reserve of Officers until reaching the mandatory retirement age of 60 on 24 March 1953. He was appointed a Gentleman Usher to the Queen in November 1959, and serving until April 1967.
Major-General Beaumont-Nesbitt died on 14 December 1971.
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).[6] 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–).[2] [7]