OBITUARY

Evening Post, Issue 60, 11 March 1936, Page 12

OBITUARY

EARL BEATTY

FAMOUS ADMIRAL

United Tress . Association—By Electric Tel* graph—Copj'rlght (Received March 11, 2.30 p.m.) LONDON, March 10. The death has occurred of Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty, aped G5 years.

From the days of Elizabeth, England has taken peculiar pride in her seamen who have distinguished themselves in battle .with,.enemies; and to English men and women there must be something attractive in/the life of one who by leaps and bounds sprang from the lowest to the highest rungs of the ladder of naval fame in an incredibly short space of time;'who survived the searching test of a -great war .when others around him were failing;, who accomplished all this: by virtue of his native wit allied to an incomparable spirit of energy, fortitude, and daring, and who embodied in himself that fighting instinct which in all times has been the-glory of the'race. This sums up Earl Beatty's life. : ' - <

Admiral. of the. Fleet v Earl , Beatty, who . owed nothing to the. accident of birth, entered the Navy fifty-two years ago, and for the first ten 'years his career was an uneventful one. But his chance came when, within a few weeks of his twenty-fifth birthday, he found himself engaged under Kitchener in the desperate advance up the Nile which led to the. capture of Omdurman and the rout of Khalifa. His gallantry and good leadership in this campaign won for him the rank of commander and the; D;S,O. ENGAGEMENTS IN CHINA. Two years later he was in the .battleship Barfieur on the China Station when the Boxer rising took place, and it fell to .the :Navy to make the first effort to reach and .relieve -the Legations at Peking., Beatty was twice wounded in ; leading a successful attack on two Chinese batteries. At 29, an age at which'an officer is fortunate to have attained- ■ commander's; rank,

he was a captain. Thereafter there was a long break in, Lord Beatty's active service record. He had married; he had ceased to'be dependent on his profession; he was > ardently devoted to hunting and other {forms of sport. There was much to tempt him from his allegiance to the most exacting of all-Services, and it was believed in the Navy that Beatty, having been' promoted to Rear-Admiral before he was- forty, would not1 be employed as a flag Officer. It was Mr. Churchill who, going to the Admiralty in 1911, difined his exceptional qualities of character.' and fighting, leadership, and secured them for his country in a place" of high responsibility at the most perilous moment of its history. After a period as Naval Secretary to Mr. Churchill he was given command of the First Battle-cruiser Squadron, that new. combination of high >speed with tremendous hitting power of which so much was expected in the event of an outbreak of war. When it came, he was. thus i occupying a. position of. importance second, only to that.of the Commander-iri-Ch'ief' *6i , the Grand ileet; and before the war .was a month old he had justified his appointment by his dashing and successful operation in the Bight of Heligoland. THE DOGGER BANK. ' Incessantly" vigilant" in the frustration of German raiding attempts', Lord Beatty. found himself in. January, 1915, in touch with.Admiral Hipper's squadron .hear ; the Dogger' Bank, and there ensued that' terrific nav,al action which, heavy though:;itscbst: was to the British forces engaged,, put ; an-end) to- the enemy's raiding, activities, and established Lord Beatty's' reputation, as one of the most -courageous and determined fighters in , the, historyj: of, the Navy. He reached ;the height, of his fame in the yet more perilous conflict carried on-by him, after.his squadron had suffered shattering loss, in the first phase of the Battle. of .Jutland, -when he met a situation of ajppaliing1 danger by continuing to •fight on while leading the enemy, within- reach of the guns of the Grand Flee*;. The escape of v Admiral yon Scheer .from the trap devised for him gave'rise to a;naval controversy, but it-detracted nothing from Lord Beatty's fame, and the German High Seas Fleet never gave battle again; AMherendof 191$ he succeeded Lord Jellicoe, as Commander-ia-Chief of the, Granil Fleet, and'after the war was ended it fell to him to preside over the internment of" the-German Fleet at.Scapa Flo>v, where,he..gave the,historic order that the 'German.flag should be' "hauled dowfrf at sunset and 'not hoisted' again." ' From- that" culminating triumph he passed,, as First Sea Lord, .to the.difficult and worse than thankless task of Sttrninistration involved in" the demobilisation of the greatest naval force that ha"s ever been brought into being, and its reduction to a peace strength much below that maintained before the war, and soon to be yet further reduced -as an outcome of the .Washington Conferonce in. 1922. Lord Beatty had at. least the satisfaction of liniHgating the inevitable hardships-of so" vast a-reduc-tion of personnel by securing much better provision than had ever before been made for officers displaced by the advent of peace. In many other ways Lord Beatty lias left his mark on naval administration—in the redistribution of Britain's naval strength, in the building' up of the Dominion sea forces, and in the. expansion-of peace-time training to meet the needs, of the new naval warfare. . '' . ~' , ' ''' WELFARE OF CREWS. He made, it,his, special .business • to see that.lower-deck, inerr had ,not only increased comfort but reasonable prospects of' promotion to commissions ■as a .reward of r merit, and. that officers were encouraged to undertake scientific research; and enjoy the advantages of University,and staff training.;

Earl Beatty retired from the post, of First Sea Lord and chief of the Nayal Staff- in 1927, and about two months ago was placed on'the Naval retired list.