Admiral The Hon. Sir Alexander Edward Bethell GCMG

Order of St Michael and St George

The Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George is an order of chivalry founded on 28 April 1818 by George, Prince Regent, later George IV of the United Kingdom, while he was acting as Prince Regent for his father, George III....

 KCB

Order of the Bath

The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by George I on 18 May 1725. The name derives from the elaborate mediæval ceremony for creating a knight, which involved bathing as one of its elements. The knights so created were known as Knights of the Bath...

 (28 August 1855 – 1932) was a Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 officer who went on to be Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth

Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth

The Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. Plymouth Command was a name given to the units, establishments, and staff operating under the admiral's command. In the nineteenth century the holder of the office was known as Commander-in-Chief,...

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Naval career

Born the second son of Richard Augustus Bethell, 2nd Baron Westbury

Baron Westbury

The Baron Westbury, of Westbury in the County of Wiltshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1861 for the lawyer and Liberal politician Richard Bethell on his appointment as Lord Chancellor, a post he held until 1865...

, Bethell joined the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 in 1869. In July-August 1899 he commanded the Arethusa

HMS Arethusa (1882)

HMS Arethusa was a second class cruiser of the Leander Class which served with the Royal Navy. She was built at Napier, Glasgow, being laid down in 1880, launched in 1882 and completed in Financial Year 1886-87. She remained in ordinary reserve at Chatham, being commissioned for the 1887, 1888,...

, which was commissioned for the annual manoeuvres. He was given command of HMS Naiad in 1903 and landed the Somaliland Field Force in East Africa before returning to the United Kingdom to become Assistant Director of Torpedoes. He was given command of the battleship

Battleship

A battleship is a large armored warship with a main battery consisting of heavy caliber guns. Battleships were larger, better armed and armored than cruisers and destroyers. As the largest armed ships in a fleet, battleships were used to attain command of the sea and represented the apex of a...

 HMS Hindostan

HMS Hindustan (1903)

HMS Hindustan was a King Edward VII class pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy . Like all ships of the class she was named after an important part of the British Empire, namely the Indian Empire.-Technical characteristics:...

 in 1908. He was appointed Director of Naval Intelligence

Naval Intelligence Division

The Naval Intelligence Division was the intelligence arm of the British Admiralty before the establishment of a unified Defence Staff in 1965. It dealt with matters concerning British naval plans, with the collection of naval intelligence...

 in 1909 and Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station

East Indies Station

The East Indies Station was a formation of the British Royal Navy from 1865 to 1941.From 1831 to 1865 the East Indies and the China Station were a single command known as the East Indies and China Station...

 in 1912. He was appointed Officer Commanding the Royal Navy War College at Portsmouth

Portsmouth

Portsmouth is the second largest city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire on the south coast of England. Portsmouth is notable for being the United Kingdom's only island city; it is located mainly on Portsea Island...

 in 1913.

He served in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 as Commander, Battleships for the 3rd Fleet. He was made Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth

Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth

The Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth was a senior commander of the Royal Navy for hundreds of years. Plymouth Command was a name given to the units, establishments, and staff operating under the admiral's command. In the nineteenth century the holder of the office was known as Commander-in-Chief,...

 in 1916 and Admiral commanding the Coastguards and Reserves in 1918. He retired later that year.

He lived at Wadeford House in Combe St Nicholas

Combe St Nicholas

Combe St Nicholas is a village and parish in Somerset, England, situated north west of Chard and from Taunton in the South Somerset district on the edge of the Blackdown Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The parish, which includes Wadeford and Scrapton, has a population of...

 in Somerset

Somerset

The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...

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Family

In 1890 he married Hilda Huntsman; they had two sons and a daughter. Both his sons were killed in World War I.