Distinguished Service Order awarded to Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty GCB (1871-1936).

As a 25 year old Lieutenant David Beatty was awarded the DSO for his services in the Sudan campaign (1896-98) on the River Nile in command of a gunboat. He received early promotion to Commander and became Captain 1900. He was promoted to Rear Admiral and Naval Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1912 (with seniority from 1910), and in that rank joined HMS ‘Lion’ in 1913, where in 1914 he was promoted to Vice-Admiral. In 1916 Beatty commanded the battle cruisers of the Grand Fleet, fighting the Battle of Jutland with his flag in HMS ‘Lion’. At the end of the year, on promotion to Admiral, he became Commander-in-Chief, Grand Fleet.

He was specially promoted to Admiral of the Fleet in April 1919 for valuable services rendered during the war, and was appointed First Sea Lord in November of that year – an office he held until July 1927. He was made MVO in 1905, CB in 1911, KCB in 1914, KCVO in 1916, GCB in 1916, GCVO in 1917, created Earl in August 1919 and made a Privy Councillor in 1927. Beatty died on 11 March 1936. He was the youngest British admiral since Nelson - he was promoted to Rear Admiral at the age of forty.

The medal is an enamelled white cross edged in gold with a green central wreath containing the Imperial Crown in gold on a red background. On the reverse is the Royal Cypher within a green wreath on a red background. The ribbon has a wide central stripe of red edged with narrower stripes of blue. It is mounted on a bar with 13 others: Sudan Medal (MED2215), China War Medal (MED2216), 1914-15 Star (MED2217), British War Medal (MED2218), Victory Medal (MED2219), Diamond Jubilee Medal, Queen Victoria 1897 (MED2220), Coronation Medal Edward VII 1902 (MED2221) Silver Jubilee George V 1935 (MED2222), Order of St George 4th Class Russia (MED2223), Croix de Guerre (MED2224), Order of the Medjidie 4th Class Turkish (MED2225), Distinguished Service Medal, USA (MED2226) and Khedive’s Sudan Medal (MED2227). The Museum also holds Admiral Beatty’s other decorations not listed here.