Tufton Victor Hamilton Beamish, Baron Chelwood MC DL (27 January 1917 – 6 April 1989) was a British Army officer and Conservative Member of Parliament for Lewes for 29 years (1945–1974), and an author.

During the Second World War, he served in France, Belgium (1940), Malaya (1942), India and Burma (1942–43), North Africa and Italy (1943–44).

In 1940 he was awarded the Military Cross; was knighted in 1961[1] and upon his retirement from the House of Commons was created a life peer as Baron Chelwood, of Lewes in the County of East Sussex on 7 May 1974.

After the outbreak of World War II, he was transferred to France as a company commander with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF).

[7] Beamish next worked as an intelligence officer in India before being transferred to the Eighth Army in North Africa in 1943, taking part in the invasion of Italy later that year.

He fought hard for the passing of a private member's bill that was enacted as the Protection of Birds Act 1954, and the subsequent amendments in 1964 and 1967.

[8] Beamish wrote a number of political and historical non-fiction books, reflecting his interests in Eastern Europe under communism, and his constituency of Lewes.