Directorates and Memberships
Director, Rhodesia Railways Ltd; Member, Governing Body of Imperial College, 1912-1930; Trustee of the Rhodes Trust, and Beit Railway Trust for Rhodesia; founded Beit Memorial Trust for Medical Research; established the Beit Fellowship at Imperial College in memory of his brother Alfred, 1913; founded the Beit Fellowships for Scientific Research at Imperial College. He was also a member of the Governing Body from 1912 and a founder member of the Royal Institute of International Affairs.
He administered both the Rhodes Trust and the Beit Trust, through which he became involved in land settlement schemes in Southern Africa. He served as director of the British South Africa Company. He was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) in the 1920 New Year Honours for his work in connection with South African troops and hospitals in England and was created a baronet in 1924 for his numerous donations to children's sanatoria, libraries and a homoeopathic research institute. He funded construction of the Beit Quad, Students' Union building and hostel at Imperial College, London. A plaque depicting him by Omar Ramsden is situated in the Beit Quad entrance. He was a generous benefactor of the Johannesburg Art Gallery, and more so with his gifts to the University of Cape Town, of which he turned the first sod in 1920. King Edward's Hospital Fund received £50,000 from Beit in 1928 for the purchase of radium.
He was no less generous to public collections in the United Kingdom, helping the Victoria and Albert Museum to acquire many works of art. He also gave his name to an award for excellence in sculpture through the Royal Society of British Sculptors, the Otto Beit Medal.
He received an Honorary LLD from the University of Cape Town and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1924.
He was married to Lilian Carter, daughter of Thomas Lane Carter of New Orleans, USA. They had two sons and two daughters, the elder son dying in 1917 and the younger being Alfred Lane Beit.
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