Major John Bernard Arbuthnot, MVO (17 May 1875 in London – 16 September 1950) was a British soldier, banker, and journalist.
Arbuthnot was the son of Colonel George Arbuthnot and wife Caroline Emma Nepean Aitchison.
He served in the Scots Guards, reaching the rank of major. In 1900 and 1901 he fought in the Second Boer War. Following his return to the United Kingdom, he was in July 1902 appointed Aide-de-Camp to Sir Henry Arthur Blake, Governor of Hong Kong. He later served in the First World War, where he was mentioned in despatches. He was invested as a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in 1902. He was also a merchant banker.
As a journalist on the Daily Express, in 1917 he founded and was author to its By the Way column, writing it pseudonymously as 'Beachcomber', before he was promoted to deputy editor and passed the role to D. B. Wyndham-Lewis in 1919.
In Hong Kong on 8 June 1903 he married Olive Blake (5 November 1875 - 12 September 1953), daughter of the Governor, Sir Henry Arthur Blake, and wife Edith Bernal Osborne. They had six children: