His work led to the conviction that, rather than trailing Europe and Asia, Southern Africa's Stone Age technology and culture had set the pace.

[1] Beaumont matriculated at Rondebosch Boys' High School before studying archaeology at the University of Cape Town under Astley John Hilary Goodwin (1900–59),[2][3] graduating with a B.Sc.

Returning in 1971 from a season of fieldwork at Border Cave, Beaumont prepared to challenge the then prevailing view that modern humans had an Asian origin.

In an article published by the Rand Daily Mail he stated his conviction that Africa would eventually prove to be the "source of modern man's beginning".

Beaumont lived during a period when archaeology was turning into a multi-disciplinary science, and utilising the expertise of palynologists, sedimentologists and radiometric dating specialists became part of his own set of skills.