Richard Beeching, Baron Beeching - Later Years

Later Years

Upon returning to ICI, Beeching was appointed liaison director for the agricultural division and organisation and services director. He later rose to become Deputy Chairman from 1966-68. In the 1965 birthday honours he was made a life peer as Baron Beeching, of East Grinstead in the county of Sussex, and in the same year he became a director of Lloyds Bank. In 1966 he was appointed as chairman of the Royal Commission to examine assizes and quarter sessions, and eventually proposed a mass reorganisation of the court system involving the setting-up of regional courts in cities such as Cardiff, Birmingham and Leeds. The following year he became chairman of Associated Electrical Industries, a role he also held with Redland from 1970–77 and Furness Withy from 1973-75. In 1968 he was invited to deliver the MacMillan Memorial Lecture to the Institution of Engineers and Shipbuilders in Scotland. He chose the subject 'Organisation'.

The Beatles considered Lord Beeching when they were trying to find someone who could sort out the business affairs of their company Apple Corps.