BOOKS OF THE WEEK
A Fighting Adthiral
The Life and Letters of David Earl Beatty. By Rear-Admiral W. S. Chalmers. (Hodder & Stoughton/ 2ss.) IN the Victorian and Edwardian navies the competition for promo- tion to Commander and Captain was very severe ; unless an officer was very strongly recommended by his Captain his name was not on the list from which selection for the half-yearly promotion was made. There were, however, three special avenues of promotion which enabled a few fortunate officers to outstrip their contem- poraries and avoid the severe competition. An Admiral on hauling down his flag was privileged to promote one officer ; the officers of the Royal Yacht received special promotions ; and the many minor wars of that era, in which the Navy co-operated with the Army, provided opportunities of gaining early promotion for war service. These special promotions had the disadvantage that officers _ without the necessary qualities for command of a man-of-war or of a fleet frequently reached the higher ranks, but the advantage that the Admiral's list was occasionally enriched by relatively young men at the height of their physical and mental powers. It was fortunate for the Navy and the nation that these specral avenues existed, for when Beatty assumed command of the Battle Cruisers in 1913 he was only 42, the youngest Admiral since Nelson. In his younger days his career was linked with that of a distin- guished officer who afterwards became Admiral the Hon. Sir Stanley Colville. He served with Colville in the Royal Yacht, and a few years later Commander Colville, selected to command a flotilla of gun- boats on the Nile, chose Lieutenant Beatty to go with him and thus prepared the path for Beatty's promotion to Commander at the age of 27, the• reward for his leadership, courage and dash in Lord Kitchener's Nile campaigns ; it was Captain Colville, when appointed to the Barfleur,' who chose Beatty as his second-in-command and thus paved the way for his promotion to Captain at the age of 29, the reward for his splendid leadership during the China War. This period of his life was crowned by his marriage to Mrs. Tree, with whom he had fallen in love before cailing for China. His wife enjoyed a large income from the millions of her father, Marshall Field, and the handsome young couple, with a place in Leicestershire for hunting, a grouse moor in Scotland, a fine house in London and a yacht, were soon prominent and popular figures in social and sport- ing circles. Life was very good and full of promise ' • the tragic last years of their married life were fortunately hidden from them. Beatty wrote almost daily to his wife when they were separated, and these letters not only become his own autobiography for important periods but throw much light on his character. .His career as a Captain was uneventful ; the two ships he com- manded were smart and efficient and Prince Louis of. Battenburg wrote to Mrs. Beatty : " It will probably give you pleasure to know that your husband's handling of ' Queen ' is the best of the squad- ron." But the consensus of naval opinion was that Beatty would retire at the first moment convenient to him. He had spent much of his Captain's time on half-pay ; his main interests, social and sporting, were outside the service ; peace-time service with its routine and standard cruises bored him. His letters tell a different story. He was already convinced that war with Germany was inevitable ; despite his apparent lack of interest, we know now that the Navy to him came before everything. Nevertheless he imperilled his whole future by refusing an appointment after promotion to Rear-Admiral. He would accept an independent command or nothing. In his intro- duction C. S. Forester writes : " If he was gambling it was a wild gamble, reckless to the last degree " ; his biographer believes he had an uncanny prevision of- his own destiny and so was- ready to throw the dice with Fate. The gamble came off. Winston Churchill became First Lord and, over-riding the Sea Lord,' decision not to offer Beatty further employment, appointed him—his Naval Secre- tary. Eighteen montps later he assumed command of the Battle Cruisers, and for the next fourteen years he was continuously employed as Battle Cruiser Admiral, then'as C-in-C, Grand Fleet, and for the last seven years as First Sea Lord. Lord Chatfield, one of Beatty's right-hand men throughout those years, recorded his first impressions of his new Admiral in the Lion ': "I quickly realised that I was with a man of exacting character. Each ship Beatty had served in from the rank of Com- mander he had brought to a high state of efficiency. Hi had a love of doing everything at-high pressure and high speed. This was not a pose ; it was entirely characteristic ; whether at sea or in hunting field ... yet he had a great power of restraint when he judged it to be necessary." These qualities were in evidence soon after the outbreak of war when by combining audacity and good judgement Beatty cleared up an awkward situation in the Heligoland Bight. The Scar- borough Raid and the Dogger Bank action, both lucidly described, caused Beatty acute .disappointment, for though the latter was hailed as a victory the initial.auccess of sinking the ' Blucher ' was not fol- lowed up because the Lion ' was put out-of action and the leadership passed into other hands. But the Battle of Jutland was a supreme test of Beatty's strategical insight and tactical skill. His biographer disposes easily of the few adverse criticisms of his handling of the advanced forces and leaves no doubt that he brilliantly fulfilled all the tasks allotted to him.
The critics were the self-appointed champions who poured forth a stream of uninformed criticism upon one or other of the two Admirals, Jellicoe and Beatty, and started an acrimonious con- troversy that lasted4fpr several years. Beatty never took any part in this controversy, hick gave a totally false impression of the relationship which existed between the two men: During the long period of tension before Jutland his serene calmness and cheerful outlook had been an inspiration to his officers and men ; they never knew how cheerless his private life had become or the terrible distress he suffered when, on the occasions that longer notice for going to sea enabled him to visit his home, nine miles from the base, he met with a cold welcome.
His calmness and cheerfulness never deserted him even when it became highly improbable that the German Fleet would put to sea again, and perhaps the best tribute to his superb powers of leader- ship was that throughout those two and a half years his officers and men never relaxed their efforts to maintain and improve fighting efficiency nor, lost all hope of firing their broadsides. A battle of another kind awaited him when he succeeded Wernyss as First Sea Lord, a battle to prevent the politicians squandering our sea-power. He served under four Prime Ministers—Lloyd George, Bonar Law, Ramsay MacDonald, Baldwin—and he retained their confidence and respect, though he was fighting them hard all the time for what he was convinced was the minimum naval strength below which it was dangerous to reduce. In this battle Winston -Churchill was one of his doughtiest opponents. But we know now from his letters that his strength was being- sapped by sleepless nights and precious time spent in helping his stricken wife back to health and attending to her business affairs which, owing to her unpredictable mind, were in a chaotic state, and, when at last he severed his connection with the service in which he had spent his life, it was not to enjoy the fruits of his labours in a happy and peaceful home. She died four years later. Beatty loved her to the end. It was, as Forester says, that which made his situation so frightful. Beatty was only 56 when he left the Admiralty, but after retire- ment he had more than his share of serious accidents, and, despite repeated warnings and the entreaties of his sons, he found it impos- sible to carry out his doctor's instructions when a heart trouble increased. He had always lived dangerously ; lying immobile in bed was more than he could bear.
" It all seems too fantastic ever to have happened, except that it did happen," are the opening words of Forester's introduction to this biography of one of our greatest fighting Admirals and most effective First Sea Lords. It is because Beatty's career was so fantastic that this admirable portrait of him will appeal to both laynian and naval officer. When many fast-moving squadrons are engaged, naval battles are not easy to follow, but the life of a fighting Admiral without an adequate account of his battles would be Hamlet without the play. Beatty's biographer has kept the descrip- tion of the battles commendably short and clear and, by his wise choice of letters, has given us an excellent character study of one of the most striking personalities in British naval history.
W. M. JAMES.
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