Neil Beaton

{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2017}}

{{Use British English|date=August 2017}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Neil Beaton

| birth_name = Neil Scobie Beaton

| birth_date = {{Birth date|1880|08|18|df=y}}

| birth_place = Buickloch, Assynt, Scotland

| death_date = {{Death date and age|1960|10|23|1880|08|18|df=y}}

| death_place = Portobello, Edinburgh, Scotland

| party = Labour Co-operative

| movement = {{Flatlist|

• Trade union
• Co-operative

}}

}}

Neil Scobie Beaton (18 August 1880 – 23 October 1960) was a Scottish trade unionist and co-operative official.

Born in Buickloch in the Assynt area of the Scottish Highlands, Beaton moved to Edinburgh when he was eighteen and worked for a large grocers. After a few years, he found work with the St Cuthbert's Co-operative Association, which offered better pay and conditions, and this began Beaton's lifelong involvement with the co-operative movement.Joyce Bellamy, "Beaton, Neil Scobie (1880-1960)", Dictionary of Labour Biography, vol.I, pp.42-43

Beaton also joined the National Amalgamated Union of Shop Assistants, and in 1911 was appointed as its full-time Scottish organiser, greatly increasing its membership in the nation. Through this position, he was active in the Scottish Trades Union Congress, serving as its treasurer in 1916/17 and its president in 1918/19. In 1919, he left the employment of the union to become an agent of the Scottish Co-operative Wholesale Society (SCWS), but initially he retained membership of the Shop Assistants' Union, and even served as its president in 1921/22.

With the SCWS, Beaton focused on establishing co-operative stores, particularly in the Highlands. He served as president of the SCWS from 1932 to 1946, during which time he was centrally involved in founding the International Co-operative Petroleum Agency and the International Co-operative Wholesale Agency. He was President of the Co-operative Congress in 1942, and also served on a number of government committees and quangos including the Royal Commission on the Press.

In his spare time, Beaton served on Edinburgh City Council for three years, as a Labour Co-operative member.