Office, and was turning out at the date of the Armistice (November 1918) 1,000 tons of high explosives a day. At first he had to cope with great difficulties. The available factories were few; and the sources of supply of raw materials were limited. Lyddite had been replaced by trinitrotoluene, every three tons of which required two tons of toluene; 600 tons of coal produced one ton of toluene. Moulton economized by mixing ammonium nitrate with trinitrotoluene, thus producing a new compound explosive known as amatol. Nitric acid, sulphuric acid, and glycerine were needed in large quantities at a time when shipping facilities were disorganized; but he managed to secure them. He had control of the gas works, coke ovens, and fat and oil supplies of the whole country. When the retaliatory use of poison gas was decided upon Moulton undertook its manufacture. His department delivered during the War a total of 612,697 tons of high explosive and 450,487 tons of propellents.
For these extraordinary services Moulton received the K.C.B. (1915) and G.B.E. (1917). At Christmas 1920 he underwent a slight nasal operation. On 8 March 1921 he sat in the House of Lords and seemed to have recovered his usual good health. In the early hours of 9 March he died in his sleep. His death, caused by a clot in an artery, had been instantaneous. Addressing the lords of appeal two days later, Lord Birkenhead, in an eloquent speech, spoke of the intellectual force and dynamic impulse of personality which had enabled a judge to play a supreme part in the European War. Lord Moulton had strong instincts of hospitality and was a delightful companion.
Moulton married twice: first, in 1875 Clara (died 1888), widow of Robert William Thomson, of Edinburgh and Stonehaven; and secondly, in 1901 Mary (died 1909), daughter of Major Henry Davis, of Naples. By his first wife he left a son (the Hon. Hugh Fletcher Moulton), and by his second wife, a daughter.
A crayon drawing of Moulton by Trevor Haddon, R.B.A., is in the possession of the family; and a cartoon portrait by ‘Spy’ appeared in Vanity Fair.
[The Times, 10 March 1921; Law Journal, 12 March 1921; Hugh Fletcher Moulton, The Life of Lord Moulton, 1922; personal knowledge.]
MOUNTBATTEN, LOUIS ALEXANDER, first Marquess of Milford Haven,
formerly styled Prince Louis Alexander of Battenberg (1854–1921), admiral of the fleet, the eldest son of Prince Alexander of Hesse (a younger son of Louis II, Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt) by his wife, Countess Julia Theresa von Haucke, was born at Gratz, Austria, 24 May 1854. The friendship between his mother and Princess Alice, daughter of Queen Victoria and consort of Prince Frederick of Hesse (afterwards Grand Duke Louis IV), led to Prince Louis settling in this country as a boy; and, having become naturalized as a British subject, he entered the royal navy as a cadet in 1868. In 1869 he was rated midshipman, and joined the Royal Alfred, flagship of Vice-Admiral (Sir) Edward Fanshawe on the North America and West Indies station. When the Admiralty took over the Serapis in 1874 for the visit of the Prince of Wales to India, Prince Louis, then sub-lieutenant, was selected to serve as one of the complement of officers. He already gave promise of distinction. His sympathies were entirely British, and Queen Victoria watched his career with almost motherly interest. His abilities as a linguist proved of no slight advantage to him in later life. At the conclusion of the Indian tour he was promoted to lieutenant, and served in the Inconstant during the Egyptian War, taking part in the bombardment of Alexandria (11 July 1882). He subsequently landed with the naval brigade, in command of a Gatling gun battery, for the occupation of Alexandria. After a period of service in the royal yacht, he was promoted to commander in 1885.
At this period the defence policy of this country was undergoing a gradual readjustment in accordance with the theories of what became known as ‘the blue-water school’, and Prince Louis was selected by the Admiralty to act as naval adviser to the inspector-general of fortifications, with a view to co-ordinating naval and military ideas. He took up this appointment in 1892, having been promoted captain in the preceding year, and held it until October 1894. In February 1894 he was chosen to act as joint secretary of the naval and military committee on defence, which afterwards was developed into the committee of imperial defence. During these years he applied himself seriously to the study of the defence problem in its naval and military aspects and was peculiarly well qualified when, in 1900, he was made assistant-director of naval intelligence. After a short period of service in the Mediterranean, he returned to the Admiralty in 1902 as director of naval intelligence, and retained that position
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