Beatty, David, Admiral of the Fleet, 1st Earl Beatty, 1871-1936.

The papers is an extensive collection covering the career as well as his private life of the second Earl Beatty. When the collection came to the museum the naval administrative papers were together in their original files, while his semi-official, private and family correspondence was still in rough sequence. The second Earl added the letters and papers relating to the funeral and attempted biographies; and Mr A Hobson, who listed the papers prior to their purchase by the Museum, arranged the greater part of the collection in a chronological order. At the museum most volumes and charts have, for storage convenience, been removed from the place in which Mr Hobson listed them. Most correspondence has also been grouped together, although items that were among the administrative papers and appeared to relate to them have retained their position. To obtain reference to any such letters, the manuscript card index should be consulted. Some correspondence, Beatty's letters to and from his wife in particular, was in no order and this has been put into chronological sequence.