Even those in Hua Hin who consider Tim a friend might actually be surprised to learn of his British heritage and the fact that he was neither born nor raised in Australia. What confuses people is that Tim’s arrival in Thailand was as an employee of an Australian company since he spent a good number of years in the early part of his career as an architect and designer living and working in Australia.

Tim still retains strong links to Australia as he has three children, all born to former wives, and now three grandchildren, aged four to fourteen, who live in Australia, so Tim is a regular visitor. Tim has even raised his dog as an Australian. Snowflake, named for her white fur as a puppy, enjoys being hand fed morsels of buttered vegemite toast for breakfast and licks Tim’s fingers clean for good measure.

Tim was born to English parents but when Tim was only three and his sister eight, the family relocated to just outside of Christchurch, New Zealand. Tim’s father had enlisted in the Royal Air Force straight from school and became a WWII pilot. As a result, he had lost the opportunity for tertiary education or to apprentice for a trade and couldn’t see a prosperous future for his young family in England in a time when wives stayed at home and dedicated themselves to the family. Tim’s father worked hard in the insurance and travel industries. The couple determined to provide a superior education for their own children, at personal sacrifice. It is something for which both Tim and his sister, sadly now deceased, were very grateful. Tim’s favourite childhood memories are of shared family times in the parks or on the beaches in New Zealand, a country noted for its rugged natural beauty.

When Tim was 14, the family returned to England to be close to Tim’s grandfather in the last few years of his life.  Despite Tim’s school being located just eight kilometres from his home, he chose to become a boarding student at the school to have some independence and still be able to go home for the weekend if he so chose. At school, Tim excelled in English, History and the Arts as he was a creative child. He found Mathematics and Science subjects more challenging though he was lucky to have his dad to coach him in these areas. Like many a young boarder, Tim liked to test the boundaries of his school, literally and figuratively, though he was lucky enough never to be caught and suspended or expelled. Tim had friends who were though, so he was on the fringe of being one of the naughty students. 

While at school Tim had an ambition to join the Royal Navy at the end of his secondary education but an eye issue disqualified his application, so he headed to Hammersmith College, now a campus of The Ealing, Hammersmith and West London College, a large further and higher education college in West London, to complete a degree in Architecture and Interior Design, a choice which meshed well with his creativity. Tim had to focus and work particularly hard to earn his degree as the study of architecture includes a lot of maths and physics, those subjects he found most difficult.

To support himself while at college, Tim took jobs in several well-known restaurants in some of London’s trendiest suburbs. He rubbed shoulders with celebrities and members of the local mafia alike and found himself in a cycle that involved too much carousing and too little sleep. While it was very enjoyable for a young man, Tim was smart enough to be aware that long-term immersion in that scene would do him no good. Tim considered the possibilities open to him, flirted with the idea of moving to Rhodesia in Africa but settled on a move to Melbourne, Australia.

A big addition to Tim’s workload came with the establishment of the Beaumont Partnership Foundation in 2008, however Tim doesn’t begrudge a single minute of his time spent to further the Foundation, which is growing and evolving every year, 2026 marking the third Year 12 graduating class of the Foundation’s school. The main focus of the Foundation is to create change through education in Thailand. Tim and his Thai/Australian wife Thalia acknowledge their position of privilege through education, something to which many Thais still have very limited access. The couple believes that there is a fundamental need in Thailand for quality education to be available at all societal levels. Unfortunately, this is not available for most underprivileged families. With basic literacy and education, disadvantaged Thais can reach their development potential and improve the financial position of themselves and their communities. This reason was vital in choosing Chaiyaphum as the location for the Foundation’s school as Chaiyaphum is one of the poorest provinces in Thailand. 

After acquiring the land and subsequently donating it to the Foundation, Tim and The Beaumont Partnership leveraged their contacts amongst corporations, clients, friends and relatives in Thailand, Australia and the UK to help in developing the school and its sustainable initiatives.
 
Ruam Pattana School in Chaiyaphum opened in 2013 as a fee-free private school although it still operates under the Thai Ministry of Education license, and the Foundation is a registered charity in Thailand. The school currently has around 40 staff and 200 students from Kindergarten to Year 12, while the 2026 school year will see the addition of a nursery cohort.

Now that the school is firmly established, the main Foundation task for Tim and Thalia lies in ensuring that donation funding is maintained and increased as the financial needs of the school grow. Across his career, Tim’s meticulous nature, his need for checking and rechecking and his belief that near enough isn’t good enough have served him well, and so he aims to deliver a well-rounded, quality education to all the students, even providing  swimming lessons in a small training pool onsite.

Tim and Thalia are ambassadors for the school who often invite contacts and potential donors to come to stay for a weekend at a small lodge purpose-built adjacent to the school grounds, so that they can witness the change the Foundation is making with their own eyes. Few of these donors manage to leave without contributing to the Foundation’s coffers, which are also boosted by annual events such as the charity golf day held in March in Bangkok. Locally, Sam Sherrif organises a charity golf day annually as well, with the proceeds split equally between Jungle Aid and the Foundation.

The crucial benefit to the students is opening their eyes to the potential of breaking the poverty cycle and doing something else with their lives other than bare subsistence farming. Children cannot dream and aspire to something they don’t know exists, so work placements, mini-internships across a wide variety of employment spheres are part of the curriculum from Year 9. It is here, again, that Tim’s network of contacts proves invaluable. Finally, the broader community from which the students are drawn is beginning to appreciate the full value of the Foundation’s endeavours, as children graduate from Ruam Pattana School and continue on to tertiary studies or move into well-paid jobs their parents, grandparents and carers could never have imagined. It has also taken a long time for some people to acknowledge that the Foundation has no agenda of self-interest or self-promotion in the establishment of the school. As Tim succinctly puts it, “there is no back door”.

Tim is justly proud that the idea for the Foundation began in Hua Hin over more than just a few drinks with close friends, one night more than 15 years ago, even though the Foundation’s core business location is in the Isan region of Thailand. The lack of equity Tim perceived between the educational opportunity for the wealthy in Bangkok and those in poor, rural communities in Isan was a powerful spur for a few, passionate and committed Thai and expatriate individuals to choose to drive positive change.

Tim is hopeful of seeing change in Hua Hin’s heritage conservation. As an architect, he holds strong opinions on the types of heritage structures worthy of preservation as well as the types of developments that are not appropriate for Hua Hin. Tim was initially drawn to Hua Hin when he first visited in the early 1990s due to the fact that it was a town under the subtle influence and control of King Rama IX, who had chosen to make it his home. Hua Hin still remains less spoiled by Western influence than many other coastal resort areas of Thailand and Tim fervently hopes this continues to be the case.

Yet Tim’s biggest hope for the future is to see the Beaumont Partnership and its Foundation continue to grow and prosper under a future leadership also willing and able to take calculated risks. As Tim ages there are the inevitable health issues which may arise. Tim swims for an hour daily for his physical flexibility, while his mental agility is showing no sign of diminishing, both being essential to his ability to deal with his daily workload. Tim is saddened by the growing violence he perceives in today’s world; however, he is still glad to be alive and walking the road towards the achievement of equality for all Thais.

Tim will not be building any more schools, but that isn’t the end of his philanthropic endeavours. Starting a charitable foundation in Thailand is a lengthy and arduous process that requires careful navigation and Tim has never been one to pick a fight he will not win. As a conduit between Western and Thai world-views, Tim’s skills and lessons-learnt will make him a valuable mentor and sounding-board for those intent on foundation building. In more ways than one, Tim Beaumont is here, for life.