Sir Richard Ashton Beaumont KCMG OBE (29 December 1912 – 23 January 2009) was a British diplomat and Arabist who spent most his diplomatic career serving in the Arab world.
Educated at Repton School and Oriel College, Oxford, Beaumont joined the Consular Service in 1936, and was sent to Lebanon and Syria.
He served as a counsellor in the British Embassy in Baghdad, and was later sent to Venezuela, his only foreign post outside the Arab world.
He served as ambassador to Egypt from 1969 to 1973,[3] and did much to strengthen Anglo-Egyptian relations.
Following his retirement, he headed several organisations dealing with British-Arab relations, such as the Arab British Chamber of Commerce (ABCC) where he served as the Chairman from 1980 to 1996.