Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. In ...

Geoffrey Herbert Bruno "Billy" Beyts (17 January 1908 – 13 December 2000) was a

British Indian Army The British Indian Army, commonly referred to as the Indian Army, was the main military of the British Raj before its dissolution in 1947. It was responsible for the defence of the British Indian Empire, including the princely states, which co ...

officer and colonial official in Kenya.

Early life

Beyts was born in Bhudi,

Kutch State Kutch State was a state within India from 1947 to 1956. Its capital was Bhuj. The state's territory now forms a Kachchh district within the Indian state of Gujarat. History Kutch State was formed out of the territory of the former princely ...

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, and educated at Bowden House School, Seaford and

Wellington College, Berkshire Wellington College is a public school (English independent day and boarding school) in the village of Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. Wellington is a registered charity and currently educates roughly 1,200 pupils, between the ages of 13 and ...

. He then attended the

Royal Military College, Sandhurst The Royal Military College (RMC), founded in 1801 and established in 1802 at Great Marlow and High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England, but moved in October 1812 to Sandhurst, Berkshire, was a British Army military academy for training infantry a ...

, before commissioning into the Indian Army on 2 February 1928.'Beyts, Geoffrey Herbert Bruno' in
Indian Army Officers 1939–1945
'' at unithistories.com, accessed 17 August 2015

Military career

He served his first year in India with the

Royal Northumberland Fusiliers The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Raised in 1674 as one of three 'English' units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, it accompanied William III to England in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution an ...

, before joining the 3rd Battalion,

6th Rajputana Rifles The 6th Rajputana Rifles were an infantry regiment of the British Indian Army. They were formed in 1922, after the Indian government reformed the army. They moved away from single battalion regiments to multi battalion regiments. The regiment se ...

. He served with distinction in

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

during the

Saya San rebellion Saya San also spelled Hsaya (original name Yar Kyaw, my, ဆရာစံ, ; 24 October 1876 – 28 November 1931) was a physician, former monk and the leader of the Saya San Rebellion of 1930-1932 in British Burma. The series of uprisings ...

of 1930-1932, and he was awarded the

Military Cross The Military Cross (MC) is the third-level (second-level pre-1993) military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Armed Forces, and formerly awarded to officers of other Commonwealth countries. The MC i ...

in December 1932. Beyts saw further action in the

Waziristan campaign (1936–39) Waziristan campaign or Waziristan expedition may refer to: *Waziristan campaign (1919–20) *Waziristan campaign (1921–24) Waziristan campaign or Waziristan expedition may refer to: *Waziristan campaign (1919–20) Waziristan campaign or Waziris ...

, before attending the

Staff College, Camberley Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army and the presidency armies of British India (later merged to form the Indian Army). It had its origins in the Royal Military College, High Wycombe, founded in 1799, which i ...

from 1936 to 1937 and working as a

staff officer A military staff or general staff (also referred to as army staff, navy staff, or air staff within the individual services) is a group of officers, enlisted and civilian staff who serve the commander of a division or other large military un ...

at the War Office of the India Office. At the start of the Second World War, he trained Independent Companies in Scotland that took part in the Norwegian Campaign, and he was made a

Member of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

in 1941. In August 1942 he returned to India as Chief of Staff to Colin Hercules Mackenzie, and aided him in the establishment of SOE resistance (later named

Force 136 Force 136 was a far eastern branch of the British World War II intelligence organisation, the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Originally set up in 1941 as the India Mission with the cover name of GSI(k), it absorbed what was left of SOE's Or ...

). Between December 1943 and April 1945, Beyts was Commanding Officer of his old unit, 3rd Battalion, 6th Rajputana Rifles during the Burma Campaign, and he then served as commander of the

62nd Indian Infantry Brigade The 62nd Indian Infantry Brigade was an Infantry formation of the Indian Army during World War II. It was formed in November 1943, and assigned to the 19th Indian Infantry Division The brigade fought in the Burma Campaign and remained with the 1 ...

until June 1945. In May 1945 he was awarded the

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...

. From 1946 to Indian independence in 1947 he was Commander of the Infantry School,

Mhow Mhow, officially Dr. Ambedkar Nagar, is a town in the Indore district in Madhya Pradesh state of India. It is located south-west of Indore city, towards Mumbai on the old Mumbai-Agra Road. The town was renamed as ''Dr. Ambedkar Nagar'' in 20 ...

Colonial officer and farmer

After leaving India in 1947, Beyts established a dairy farm in

British Kenya British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

. He applied for work with the British administration there and became District Commissioner for the Mweiga area. His district contained the

Treetops Hotel Treetops Hotel was a hotel in Aberdare National Park in Kenya near the township of Nyeri, 1,966 m (6,450 ft) above sea level on the Aberdare Range and in sight of Mount Kenya. First opened in 1932 by Eric Sherbrooke Walker, it was bui ...

, and in 1952 Beyts was responsible for informing Princess Elizabeth that

George VI George VI (Albert Frederick Arthur George; 14 December 1895 – 6 February 1952) was King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Commonwealth from 11 December 1936 until Death and state funeral of George VI, his death in 1952. ...

had died. He left Kenya in 1962 in the wake of the

Mau Mau Uprising The Mau Mau rebellion (1952–1960), also known as the Mau Mau uprising, Mau Mau revolt or Kenya Emergency, was a war in the British Kenya Colony (1920–1963) between the Kenya Land and Freedom Army (KLFA), also known as the ''Mau Mau'', an ...

Subsequent career

Always active in many walks of life, despite formal retirement, he was involved in such activities as organising and assisting the settlement of displaced

Ugandan Asians In early August 1972, the President of Uganda, Idi Amin, ordered the expulsion of his country's Indian minority, giving them 90 days to leave the country. At the time of the expulsion, there were about 80,000 individuals of Indian descent in Ugand ...

, in the British Legion and such like.

Personal life

He married first, in 1940, Ruby Scott-Elliot, who died in 1980. Together they had a son and a daughter, Nicholas and Vanessa. He married, secondly, Linda Segrave Daly. He published an autobiography, ''The King's Salt'', in 1983. In retirement he lived in Spain, where he died, aged 92, in 2000. Geoffrey is buried in the

English Cemetery, Málaga The English Cemetery in Málaga ( es, Cementerio Inglés de Málaga), or Anglican Cemetery, or Cemetery of St George, is the oldest non-Roman Catholic Christian cemetery established on mainland Spain. History and description The English Cemetery ...

References

External links

Indian Army Officers 1939−1945
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beyts, Geoffrey 1908 births 2000 deaths British Army personnel of World War II British colonial officials British Indian Army officers Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Graduates of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst Graduates of the Staff College, Camberley Members of the Order of the British Empire Recipients of the Military Cross British Kenya people Royal Northumberland Fusiliers officers Commandants of Infantry School, Mhow