[1] He was a career diplomat who descended from a Tatar noble family which had converted from Islam to the Russian Orthodox faith.

Generations of the Bakhmeteff nobility had served under the Czars within the military and civil service.

Previous to his service for Russia in Washington he had served as the Russian Ambassador to Japan.

The Beales were the owners of Decatur House in Washington and Tejon Ranch.

He died on 29 August 1928 in Paris, probably at the Hôtel de Besenval, where he still resided in the second half of the 1920s.