Australian by birth he was brought to New Zealand at the age of two and eventually made Wellington his home where, still young, he turned a small importing business into a substantial enterprise.

He is believed to have crossed the Equator about 24 times travelling by sea to London maintaining business and banking contacts.

Born in Ararat, Victoria, Australia on 15 November 1858 two-year-old Beauchamp moved with his family to Nelson, New Zealand in 1861 and then Picton.

His father successfully contested the 1866 election for the Picton electorate but resigned in 1867,[1] sold up and moved to isolated Beatrix Bay in Pelorus Sound / Te Hoiere.

She was the daughter of Joseph Dyer (1821–1877) and his wife Margaret Isabella née Mansfield —whose surname granddaughter Kathleen would take as her own.

Almost their entire married life was spent in one corner of Thorndon though in 1893 they did move to a larger house, Chesney Wold, in semi-rural Karori.

The multifarious items shipped in and distributed ranged from blasting powders and Nobel's Dynamite through teas and coffees to wines, bulk ales and whiskies.

Beauchamp bought another more spacious house in relatively remote Karori but they returned to fashionable Thorndon in 1898 when he joined the board of the Bank of New Zealand.

He gave his large house and garden at 47 Fitzherbert Terrace — later demolished to form part of the compound of the Embassy of the United States in New Zealand — to form the core of a fund to buy pictures for the National Art Gallery now subsumed within Te Papa.

[16] He established relationships with bankers and distinguished authorities on finance in London and in New York and maintained them the rest of his life visiting in person every three or four years.

[17] he attended the Sixth Congress of Federation of Chambers of Commerce of the British Empire and was received by King Edward VII.