He was a close friend of fellow expedition member Dr. T. Howard Somervell, with whom he had made 32 alpine ascents in 1923, in just six weeks. He was also a photographer and took a number of excellent photographs of the expedition. Beetham was a schoolmaster by profession and taught at the Barnard Castle School, County Durham, for over 40 years. He was also an expert ornithologist and wrote several books on birds.

During the expedition Beetham contracted dysentery in the Indian state of Sikkim and suffered from painful sciatica as well. This limited his participation at times and often kept him in base camp instead of climbing.

Following Everest, Beetham continued to climb in the Tirol and the High Atlas mountains of Morocco. Over the war years he single-handedly surveyed the Lakeland climbing area. He was still an active climber in his later years but was turned down for a 1953 expedition at the age of 66. He suffered serious injury in a fall in Britain and never fully regained his health.