BEATTY, Silt David, K.C.B., M.V.O., D.S.O., British admiral: b. 1871. He entered the navy in 1884 and first saw active service on the Nile as a lieutenant under Kitchener in 1898, when he distinguished himself as second in command of the gunboat flotilla at the forc ing of the dervishes' batteries at Hafir while exposed to heavy fire. His superior officer be ing wounded, Beatty took command and bom barded the enemy position at Dongola and dis mounted their guns. He was mentioned in despatches and received the D.S.0.; and was again under fire in the battles of Atbara and Khartum. He was made commander and decorated by the Khedive. In the Boxer re bellion of 1900 he showed exceptional tenacity in endeavoring, with 200 blue-jackets, to cap ture two Chinese guns that were causing con siderable trouble to the forces and inhabitants at Tientsin. Though twice wounded, he re peatedly led his men close up to the guns. He rose to captain in 1900, was made M.V.O. in 1905 and rear-admiral in 1910. In 1912 and 1913 he was naval secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty, and in the latter year was placed in command of the First Battle Cruiser Squadron. The day before Great Britain de clared war on Germany he *as promoted acting vice-admiral. Beatty's first action against the navy created by von Tirpitz took place in the Bight of Heligoland in the morning of 28 Aug. 1914. German patrols had caused considerable damage to fishing craft in the North Sea and it was decided to undertake a,n offensive opera tion with a view to check the German raiders.
The operation consisted of a scooping move ment, by which submarines and destroyers en tered the Bight and attracted the enemy's fire. The German light cruisers were drawn into the action, and at a prearranged period Beatty ap peared on the scene with his battle cruisers and destroyed as many ships as were unable to escape under the land fortifications. Though about 60 British craft were engaged, only four were hit. The Germans lost three cruisers and two destroyers, while other vessels were dam aged. The British casualties were 32 killed and 52 wounded; about 700 of the German crews perished and 300 were rescued and taken pris oners. On 24 Jan. 1915 Beatty fought an ac tion in the North Sea off the Dogger Bank, in which the Bliieher (German armored cruiser) was sunk and only two British vessels were hit. In the battle of Jutland Beatty engaged the German high sea fleet with his cruiser squadron in unequal combat in a desperate ef fort to hold up the enemy until the arrival of Sir John Jellicoe's grand fleet, then about 50 miles away (31 May-1 June 1916). Two of Beatty's battle cruisers, Indefatigable and Queen Mary, were sunk and he fought with eight capital ships against at least 19 of the combined fleets of von Hipper and von Scheer. On 29 Nov. 1917 Beatty was appointed com mander of the grand fleet in succession to Ad miral Jellicoe, who became First Sea Lord. See jUTLAND, BATTLE OF.