Croix de Guerre, 1914-18, awarded to Admiral of the Fleet, Earl Beatty, GCB, OM, GCVO, DSO (1871-1936) on 15 February 1919. The medal is in the form of a bronze cross pattée superimposed on two crossed swords. The central medallion on the obverse bears the symbolic head of the Republic (Marianne) encircled by the inscription: ‘REPUBLIQUE FRANCAISE’. Inscribed on the reverse is ‘1914’ and ‘1917’. Suspended from a watered silk ribbon, green with narrow red edges and five narrow vertical red stripes.

It is mounted on a bar with 13 other medals awarded to Admiral Beatty and held by the Museum: Distinguished Service Order (MED2214), 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), 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 decorations not listed here.

As a 25-year-old lieutenant, David Beatty was awarded the DSO for his services in the Sudan campaign (1896-8) on the River Nile in command of a gunboat. He received early promotion to Commander and became Captain in 1900. He was promoted to Rear-Admiral and Naval Secretary to the First Lord of the Admiralty in 1912 (with seniority from 1910). In that rank he 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. Admiral Beatty was created 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. He died on 11 March 1936. He was the youngest British admiral since Nelson being promoted to Rear-Admiral at the age of 40.