Major-General Merton Beckwith-Smith, DSO, MC (11 July 1890 – 11 November 1942) was a senior British Army officer during both the First and Second World Wars.

Beckwith-Smith was born on 11 July 1890 at 24 Walton Street, Chelsea to stockbroker Beckwith Smith and Georgina Butler Moore.

At 8 P.M. a platoon of the battalion, led by Beckwith-Smith (who was wounded and subsequently received the Distinguished Service Order), crossing the hundred yards of No Man's Land, rushed the trench with the bayonet.

The award of the DSO was reported in the Edinburgh Gazette on 13 November 1914,[5] Second Lieutenant Merton Beckwith Smith, 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards.

German trenches, disabling 20 of the enemy, and displayed great enterprise and coolness in this operation, in which he was wounded.Now a captain, Beckwith-Smith was awarded the French Croix de Guerre in 1917.

[12] In his capacity as Lieutenant-Colonel commanding the Welsh Guards, Beckwith-Smith participated in the Royal Procession at the Trooping the Colour of 1936, and again the following year.

[13][14] Beckwith-Smith was promoted to temporary brigadier in February 1938[15] and spent fourteen months serving in India in command of the Lahore Brigade.

I regret I have been unable to lead you to the success in battle to which your cause and sacrifice is entitled, and although I leave you with a heavy heart, I carry with me many precious memories and a sense of comradeship such as could only have been inspired by the trials and disappointments which we have shared in the last few months.

Meanwhile GOOD LUCK, HEADS UP, KEEP SMILING.On 11 November 1942 Merton Beckwith-Smith died at Karenko Camp of diphtheria as a prisoner of war.