Admiral of the Fleet David Richard Beatty, 1st Earl Beatty (17 January 1871 – 11 March 1936), was a
Royal Navy officer. After serving in the
Mahdist War and then the response to the
Boxer Rebellion, he commanded the
1st Battlecruiser Squadron at the
Battle of Jutland in 1916, a tactically indecisive engagement after which his aggressive approach was contrasted with the caution of his commander Admiral
Sir John Jellicoe. He is remembered for his comment at Jutland that "There seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today", after two of his ships exploded. Later in the war he succeeded Jellicoe as Commander in Chief of the
Grand Fleet, in which capacity he received the surrender of the German
High Seas Fleet at the end of the War. He then served a lengthy term as
First Sea Lord in which capacity he was involved in negotiating the
Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 in which it was agreed that the USA, Britain and Japan should set their navies in a ratio of 5:5:3, with France and Italy maintaining smaller fleets.