Colonel Walter Horace Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted MC (13 March 1882 – 8 November 1948) was an Anglo-Jewish army officer and oilman.

Samuel initially pursued a career in the British Army, serving in the Queen's Own West Kent Yeomanry and eventually reaching the rank of captain.

[citation needed] Lord Bearsted also served in the Second World War, gaining the rank of colonel with the Intelligence Corps.

[3] Samuel's father had donated money to the Maidstone Museum in which his son's Japanese collection, inspired by the family's oriental business activities, was displayed.

In addition, he made many donations to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and served as chairman of the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London in the years preceding his death.