Page "David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty" Paragraph 9

The couple had two sons, David Field Beatty, 2nd Earl Beatty ( 1905 – 1972 ) born at the Capua Palace, Malta, and the Hon.

Peter Randolph Louis Beatty ( 1910 – 1949 ).

His marriage to a very wealthy heiress allowed Beatty an independence that most other officers lacked.

She is reputed to have commented after he was threatened with disciplinary action following the straining of his ship's engines, " What?

Court-martial my David?

I'll buy them a new ship.

" She had bought him a steam yacht, houses in London and in the Leicestershire hunting country, and a Scottish grouse moor.

The couple circulated in high society, even occasionally dining with the King.

However, there were disadvantages, as Beatty discovered after his marriage, for his wife was an unstable neurotic who caused him extreme mental tortures.

Beatty was an intelligent and able leader, but all his social and sporting obligations, coupled with his high-strung temperament, prevented him from becoming a coldly calculating professional like Jellicoe – or his adversary, Hipper.

Beatty ’ s flamboyant style included wearing a non-standard uniform, which had six buttons instead of the regulation eight on the jacket, and always wearing his cap at an angle.