Harry McWaters Beer (15 April 1913 – 23 March 1987) was a Canadian Quaker and Headmaster of Pickering College.
Beer was educated at Pickering College and served as French Master from 1938 to 1953 before becoming the school's longest-serving Headmaster from 1953 to 1978.[1]
Beer championed the abolition of corporal punishment as a means of discipline to the Canadian Association of Independent Schools,[2] which eventually outlawed caning and other physical punishments as a result. The practice was subsequently outlawed across Canada in 2004.[3] Beer brought other pacifist ideals to Pickering College during his term as Headmaster, including human rights, social justice, end environmental concerns in the teaching curriculum.
He was brother-in-law of diplomat and academic John Wendell Holmes and father of politician Charles Beer.