Servì la Royal Artillery in India, in Burma e in Cina, dove prese parte alla Battaglia di Pechino dopo la Ribellione dei Boxer guadagnandosi tre menzioni al merito ed un Distinguished Service Order.

 Fu anche interprete visto che parlava correntemente oltre l'inglese, il francese, il tedesco e l'indiano.

 Pops, come veniva affettuosamente chiamato dagli amici, sperimentò tutte le forme del gioco dal Whist fino al Contract Bridge e nel 1906 pubblicò primo libro inglese sul Bridge.

 Socio dell'Almacks Club fin dal 1901, in seguito fu Presidente e co-fondatore di due dei più rinomati Club Inglesi: il Crockford's in St. James e l'Hamilton in Hamilton Place.

Giocatore di livello, vinse la Gold Cup del 1933, partecipò a diversi eventi internazionali e fu l'ideatore dell'Apertura di 2♣ forzante con il gradino negativo di 2♦.

Egli fu anche lo sfidante di Ely Culbertson nei due famosi incontri che fecero eco in tutto il Mondo e contese, in entrambe le occasioni senza successo, la Schwab Cup agli americani.

Morì il 14 dicembre del 1949 a causa di un infarto poco dopo aver perso la moglie.

 Lieutenant Colonel Henry Mountifort Beasley DSO (1875 – 14 December 1949), known as 'Pops', was a British Army officer and a leading contract bridge personality in the early days of the game.

Born in Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh, India, he was educated at Bedford School, and entered the Royal Military Academy (Woolwich) on leaving school. Beasley was gazetted to the Royal Artillery in 1896. He served in India, Burma and China, and took part in the Relief of Peking after the Boxer Rebellion. He served in WWI on the staff of the Anzac Corps. He was thrice mentioned in dispatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). After the war he served in Germany on the Disarmament Commission. He was an interpreter in French, German and Hindustani.

Pops had played all forms of bridge from the days of bridge–whist and auction bridge. He wrote his first book on this game in 1906, London bridge, which "started the bridge craze in all the fashionable clubs of that day." (Beasley). Like many of the early contract bridge players, he had been an expert auction bridge player in the 1920s. In domestic bridge he was a leading organizer. He had been a member of Almacks club since 1901, and later was a co-founder and Chairman of two leading London card clubs - Crockford's (in St James' Street) and the Hamilton Club (in Hamilton Place). He was also a leading player in the 1930s, winning the Gold Cup in 1933, and playing in several international events. He was an author and bridge columnist, and the originator of a bidding system named after him.

In bidding, Beasley adopted many of Culbertson's ideas, but was displeased with the strong twos and their negative response of two no trumps. As a result, so he claimed, he was the inventor (in 1936) of the artificial strong two clubs opening bid with its negative response two diamonds.

For many years all the British bidding systems used this method of dealing with strong hands: Acol (both standard and Benjaminised), CAB, Two Clubs and Baron systems all used it. However, it is fair to mention that others have also claimed authorship of this fruitful idea.