 He moved to Ceylon in 1895 to work on tea plantations.Between 1898 and 1899, Beamish served as an assistant manager on the Hope Estate in Upper Hewaheta, then as a second lieutenant with the Ceylon Planters Rifle Corps during the Second Boer War (1899–1902), leaving Ceylon for South Africa in April 1900.He returned to Ceylon two years later in July 1902.