David Beatty, 2nd Earl Beatty

David Field Beatty, 2nd Earl Beatty, DSC (22 February 1905 – 10 June 1972), styled Viscount Borodale from 1919 to 1936, was a Royal Navy officer and British Conservative Party politician.

The Earl Beatty
Under-Secretary of State for Air
In office
1945–1945
Preceded byQuintin Hogg
Succeeded byJohn Strachey
Member of Parliament for Peckham
In office
27 October 1931 – 11 March 1936
Preceded byJohn Beckett
Succeeded byLewis Silkin
Personal details
Born
David Field Beatty

(1905-02-22)22 February 1905
Died10 June 1972(1972-06-10) (aged 67)
Political partyConservative
Spouses
Dorothy Rice Power
(m. 1937; div. 1945)
Dorothy Rita Furey
(m. 1946; div. 1950)
Adelle Dillingham
(m. 1951; div. 1958)
Diane Kirk Blundell
(m. 1959)
RelationsPeter Beatty (brother)
Ronald Tree (half-brother)
Marshall Field (grandfather)
Parent(s)David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty
Ethel Field Beatty
Alma materRoyal Naval College, Osborne
Britannia Royal Naval College
Military service
AllegianceUnited Kingdom
Branch/serviceRoyal Navy
Years of service1918–1945
RankCommander
CommandsHMS Boreas (1941)
HMS Buxton (1940–41)
HMS Puffin (1940)
Battles/warsSecond World War
AwardsDistinguished Service Cross

Early life

edit

Beatty was born on 22 February 1905. He was the eldest son of Admiral of the Fleet David Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty and his wife Ethel. He had one brother, Peter Beatty. From his mother's first marriage to Arthur Tree (a son of Lambert Tree), he had an elder half-brother, Ronald Tree, who served as MP for Harborough and friend of Winston Churchill. Ronald was married to Nancy Keene Field (née Perkins) (widow of his first cousin Henry Field) and Marietta FitzGerald (née Peabody), a granddaughter of the Rev. Endicott Peabody.[1]

His maternal grandfather was the American businessman Marshall Field. His father was the second son of five children born to Captain David Longfield Beatty and Katherine Edith Beatty (née Sadleir), both from Ireland: David Longfield had been an officer in the Fourth Hussars where he formed a relationship with Katrine, the wife of another officer.[2]

Beatty was educated at the Royal Naval College, Osborne, on the Isle of Wight, and the Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. In 1919, he gained the courtesy title of Viscount Borodale when his father was created Earl Beatty.[citation needed]

Career

edit

In 1919, he gained the rank of midshipman in the service of the Royal Navy. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1928. He would later serve in the Leicestershire Yeomanry, part of the Territorial Army, and gained the rank of lieutenant in 1933.

Beatty, holding the rank of lieutenant commander, was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross in 1942.[3]

Political career

edit

From 1931 to 1936 he was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Peckham. His half-brother Ronald Tree also sat in Parliament at this time, as member for Market Harborough, Leicestershire. During his time in parliament he held the office of Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Parliamentary Secretary to the Admiralty from 1931 until 1936. He moved to the House of Lords when he succeeded as 2nd Earl Beatty on his father's death on 11 March 1936.[4]

He also served as a member of the London County Council in 1937. In 1945, he served as Under-Secretary of State for Air in the Caretaker Government after the Second World War.[4]

Marriages and issue

edit

Beatty married four times, the first three times to Americans:

  • Firstly, on 21 April 1937, as her 4th husband, to Dorothy Carlotta Power (d.1966), a daughter of Thomas Stack Power, an American salesman, and an elder sister of General Thomas Sarsfield Power, United States Army Air Forces, who directed the dropping of atomic bombs on Japan. Dorothy was formerly the wife successively of LaFrance Adelbert Mitchell, Harry Estie Reynolds Hall, and Edward Van Volkenburgh Sands. Beatty and Dorothy divorced in 1945 after which she remarried fifthly to John Gordon Baragwanath, whom she divorced, and sixthly and lastly, on 10 December 1954, to Peregrine Francis Adelbert Cust, 6th Baron Brownlow.[4]
  • David Beatty, 3rd Earl Beatty (b. 1946), who in 1971 married Anne Please, whom he divorced in 1982, and remarried to Anoma Corinne Wijewardene in 1984.[4]
  • Thirdly, on 5 July 1951, he married Adelle Dillingham (d.1990), a daughter of M. Dillingham, of Oklahoma City and formerly the wife of William V. O'Connor of Los Angeles, California. They divorced in 1958 and in 1960 Adelle remarried to the American film director Stanley Donen. Beatty had one daughter by Adelle:[4]
  • Fourthly and lastly, on 3 December 1959, he married Diane Kirk Blundell, a daughter of John Rutherford Blundell of Hayling Island in Hampshire. She was one of the last generation of debutantes to be presented to the Queen, in 1958.[5] They remained married until his death. From his fourth marriage he had one son and one daughter:[4]

Death

edit

Lord Beatty died on 10 June 1972 and was succeeded by his eldest son David Beatty, 3rd Earl Beatty. After his death his widow remarried in 1973 to Sir John Nutting, 4th Baronet of Chicheley Hall.[4]

References

edit
  1. ^ Brubach, Holly (9 November 1997). "Running Around in High Circles | Others might play hard to get; Marietta Tree, this biography shows, was genuinely unattainable". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  2. ^ Heathcote, p. 23
  3. ^ "No. 35729". The London Gazette (Supplement). 2 October 1942. p. 4324.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k "Beatty, Earl (UK, 1919)". www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Heraldic Media Limited. Retrieved 26 May 2020.
  5. ^ "High Society: Whatever happened to the last of the debs?". The Independent. 23 September 2006.
edit
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Peckham
19311936
Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Under-Secretary of State for Air
1945
Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Earl Beatty
1936–1972
Succeeded by