David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty

Time spent in the battleships was little to Beatty's liking as the life involved no action but enormous efforts spent making the ships look smart at all times.<br /><br /> Beatty gained recognition in the campaign for the recapture of the Sudan (1897–1899) commanded by Lord Kitchener. Stanley Colville was placed in command of the gunboats attached to the British expeditionary force in Egypt and as Beatty's former commander in Trafalgar and superior in 'Alexandra' he requested that Beatty join him. Control of the river Nile was considered vitally important for any expedition into Egypt and the Sudan. Read Less

At the time Beatty was 27 and had served only 6 years as Lieutenant compared to the typical 12 before promotion. He also acquired the Khartoum Medal and the Turkish Order of Mejidieh, fourth class.<br /><br /> Beatty returned to England on leave where he met his future wife, Ethel Tree. Read Less

Government troops joined forces with the rebels and the railway to the Treaty Port of Tientsin was interrupted. Admiral Sir Edward Seymour sent reinforcements to Peking, but they were insufficient to defend the Legation. An attempt was therefore made to send more troops from Tientsin, where British ships had been joined by French, German, Russian, Austrian, Italian and Japanese. The international naval brigade force of naval marines placed itself under the senior officer present, which was Seymour. After an urgent call for help from the Legation, Seymour set out on 10 June with 2000 troops to attempt to break through to Peking. The force got about half way before abandoning the attempt because the railway line had been torn up. By now rebels had begun destroying the track behind the force, cutting it off from Tientsin.<br /><br /> On 11 June, Beatty and 150 men from Barfleur landed as part of a force of 2,400 defending Tientsin from 15,000 Chinese troops plus Boxers. On the 16th the Taku forts were bombarded and captured to ensure ships could still reach the port. Fierce fighting broke out throughout the foreign areas and railway station, and Beatty was injured by a bullet in the left arm and wrist. He was discharged from the field hospital after a few days, and took command of the British contingent of a relief force sent out to help Seymour. The survivors from Seymour's force, plus 200 wounded including John Jellicoe, were successfully brought back to Tientsin on the 26th. Read Less

Just shy of 39, the youngest Admiral in the Royal Navy (except for Royal family members) since Horatio Nelson. Read Less

During the course of the war, he took part in actions at Heligoland Bight (1914), Dogger Bank (1915) and Jutland (1916). He was an aggressive commander who expected his subordinates to always use their initiative without direct orders from himself.<br /><br /> Jutland proved to be decisive in Beatty's career, despite the loss of two of his battlecruisers. Beatty is reported to have remarked (to his Flag Captain, Chatfield, later First Sea Lord in the early 1930s), "there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today," after two of them had exploded within half an hour during the battle. One theory is that this was caused by a design fault in the ammunition loading system to the main gun turrets, so that an enemy hit on the turret set off an explosion in the magazine, thus sinking the ship. Churchill's account of the First World War, The World Crisis, describes Beatty's next order as, "Steer two points nearer the enemy." His next order was to turn away by two points, and, in any case, a few minutes later he reversed his fleet's course to fulfill its anticipated role of leading the German forces towards the main British fleet. Read Less

On knocking on one door the lady of the house, presuming him to be a sailor in search of "horizontal refreshment", directed him to the local brothel several doors down the road. Another version of the story is that he canvassed with Nancy, Lady Astor, MP for Plymouth Sutton, and received an embarrassingly friendly welcome at boarding houses who were used to renting rooms by the hour to sailors and their lady companions.<br /><br /> Beatty died after catching a chill as pallbearer at the funeral of his old commander Admiral Jellicoe. He had been advised not to leave his bed, but he went anyway saying, "What will the Navy say if I fail to attend Jellicoe's funeral?" Beatty had requested in his will that he would like to be buried next to his wife Ethel at Dingley. Instead he was buried at St Paul's Cathedral. Thus the double grave at Dingley Church only has Beatty's wife buried there. Read Less