Beaumont was born Joan Errington Magor on 25 October 1948 in Adelaide, South Australia, to Clifford James Magor and his wife Edna Jean (née Errington).[1][2] Educated at Unley High School, she completed a Bachelor of Arts degree with Honours at the University of Adelaide in 1970. In her final year, Beaumont was appointed a tutor in modern European history at the university.[1][2] In 1971, she was awarded a British Commonwealth Scholarship to undertake doctoral studies at King's College London.[2] Under the guidance of M. L. Dockrill, Beaumont graduated in 1975 with a thesis titled "Great Britain and the Soviet Union: The Supply of Munitions, 1941–1945".[3] During her time in London, Beaumont wed Oliver James Beaumont in 1973. The couple had three daughters, before the union ended in divorce.[1][2]
Academic career
On her return to Australia, Beaumont worked as an editor for Melbourne University Press. In 1976, she gained a position tutoring in British colonial history at La Trobe University, before being appointed to a lectureship at Deakin University the following year. Promoted to senior lecturer, Beaumont's doctoral thesis was published in 1980 as her first book: Comrades in Arms: British Aid to Russia, 1941–1945. In 1985, she was appointed Lecturer in British and Australian History at Monash University. After three years in the post, she returned to Deakin as a senior lecturer in 1988; her second book, Gull Force: Survival and Leadership in Captivity, 1941–1945, was published by Allen & Unwin the same year.[1][2] Her research analysed the experience of the Australian prisoners of war captured by the Japanese on Ambon in 1942.[4] Beaumont was promoted to reader in 1990.[1][2]
— (1980). Comrades in Arms: British Aid to Russia, 1941–1945. London: Davis-Poynter. ISBN9780706702323.
— (1988). Gull Force: Survival and Leadership in Captivity, 1941–1945. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN9780043020081.
— (2013). Broken Nation: Australians in the Great War. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN9781741751383.
— (2022). Australia's Great Depression: How a Nation Shattered by the Great War Survived the Worst Economic Crisis it Has Ever Faced. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN9781760293987.
Edited books
—, ed. (1995). Australia's War, 1914–18. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN9781863734615.
—, ed. (1996). Australia's War, 1939–45. Sydney: Allen & Unwin. ISBN9781864480399.
—, ed. (2001). Australian Defence: Sources and Statistics. The Australian Centenary History of Defence. Vol. 6. Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN9780195541182.
—; Waters, Christopher; Lowe, David; Woodard, Garry, eds. (2003). Ministers, Mandarins And Diplomats: Australian Foreign Policy Making, 1941–1969. Melbourne: Melbourne University Publishing. ISBN9780522850475.
—; O'Brien, Ilma Martinuzzi; Trinca, Matthew, eds. (2008). Under Suspicion: Citizenship and Internment in Australia during the Second World War. Canberra: National Museum of Australia Press. ISBN9781876944605.
—; Jordan, Matt, eds. (2013). Australia and the World: A Festschrift for Neville Meaney. Sydney: Sydney University Press. ISBN9781743320006.
—; Grant, Lachlan; Pegram, Aaron, eds. (2015). Beyond Surrender: Australian Prisoners of War in the Twentieth Century. South Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Publishing. ISBN9780522866216.
—; Cadzow, Allison, eds. (2018). Serving Our Country: Indigenous Australians, War, Defence and Citizenship. Sydney: NewSouth Publishing. ISBN9781742235394.
^ abcdefgSharon M. Harrison. "Beaumont, Joan Errington (1948 – )". The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia. Australian Women's Archives Project 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2015.