Geoffrey Beyts

Brigadier Geoffrey Herbert Bruno "Billy" Beyts (17 January 1908 – 13 December 2000) was a British Indian Army officer and colonial official in Kenya.

Early life Beyts was born in Bhudi, Kutch State, India, and educated at Bowden House School, Seaford and Wellington College, Berkshire. He then attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, before commissioning into the Indian Army on 2 February 1928.

Military career He served his first year in India with the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, before joining the 3rd Battalion, 6th Rajputana Rifles. He served with distinction in Burma during the Saya San rebellion of 1930-1932, and he was awarded the Military Cross in December 1932. Beyts saw further action in the Waziristan campaign (1936–39), before attending the Staff College, Camberley from 1936 to 1937 and working as a staff officer at the War Office of the India Office. At the start of the Second World War, he trained Independent Companies in Scotland that took part in the Norwegian Campaign, and he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 1941.