Beckett was born in
Hawarden,
Flintshire, the son of a land agent. He was educated at
Sherborne School, before serving with the 3rd Gattalion,
Cheshire Regiment during the
First World War. He served in France, Salonika, and the Caucasus, and reached the rank of
captain. He then entered
Wadham College, Oxford, where he was a scholar, took
first-class honours in Jurisprudence, and won the
Eldon Law Scholarship. He was elected a prize fellow of
All Souls College, Oxford in 1921. He was called to the bar by the
Inner Temple in 1922, joined the Foreign Office as assistant legal adviser in 1925, and was promoted second legal adviser in 1929. He played a key role in the
1930 League of Nations Codification Conference and in relation to the abolition of the
capitulatory regime in Egypt in 1934. He advised the British government during the
Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, and played an important part in the first three assemblies of the
United Nations. Beckett became Legal Adviser to the Foreign Office in 1945, succeeding Sir William Malkin. As Legal Adviser, Beckett was responsible for a heavy litigation program involving the United Kingdom. He led the British legal team in the
Corfu Channel case, the
Anglo-Norwegian Fisheries case, and the
Anglo-Iranian Oil Company case, and participated in many others. He retired due to illness in 1953. Beckett became a
CMG in 1931, a
King's Counsel in 1946 and was promoted to
KCMG in 1948. == Family ==