In parliament and on the platform, while not strong in argument, he was an attractive and forceful speaker and was popular with all parties, confining himself as a rule to naval topics in which he was especially interested. Owing partly to his variety of interests and partly to his quarrels with authority, he had until late in life comparatively little actual sea experience; but from the day in January 1900 on which he hoisted his flag in the Mediterranean, when nearly fifty-four, he was for the greater part of nine years continuously afloat. He soon showed himself an able and active flag officer; and he commanded the most important of the fleets of the country during a period of great naval development, when the position of foreign affairs was often critical, with an energy and ability that won general recognition from the service. He maintained and enhanced the fighting efficiency of the squadrons and flotillas placed in his charge, and devoted immense personal care to the welfare of the great body of men under his orders. He fully understood and practised the art of delegating authority, and he won the devoted loyalty of all ranks by his frank recognition of merit and his readiness to overlook minor faults when the intention of the action was good and sound. He was ambitious to reach the highest position in his profession, and it was unfortunate that the last years of his command were clouded by what came to be a personal antagonism between himself and, that other great sailor, Lord Fisher, with whom, until 1903, he had been on terms of amity and in full agreement on naval policy. But a man of his geniality and good humour could not long nurse resentment; and in his entertaining autobiography, Memories, published in 1914, all traces of this regrettable dispute have practically disappeared. An admirable host, in London and general society he enjoyed a well-deserved and universal popularity.
Beresford married in 1878 Mina, daughter of Richard Gardner, M.P. for Leicester, and left two daughters.
There is a portrait of Beresford by C. W. Furse in the National Portrait Gallery.
[Admiralty records; Lord Charles Beresford, Memories, 1914.]
BERTIE, FRANCIS LEVESON, first Viscount Bertie, of Thame (1844-1919), diplomatist, was born 17 August 1844 at Wytham Abbey, Berkshire, the second son of Montagu Bertie, sixth Earl of Abingdon, by his wife, Elizabeth Lavinia, only daughter of George Granville Vernon Harcourt, M.P., of Nuneham Courtney, Oxfordshire. He was educated at Eton, and entered the Foreign Office by competitive examination in 1863. There he remained for forty years. From 1874 to 1880 Bertie was parliamentary private secretary to the Hon. Robert Bourke, afterwards Baron Connemara [q.v.], under-secretary of state for foreign affairs. In 1878 he was attached, as acting second secretary, to the special embassy of the Earl of Beaconsfield and the Marquess of Salisbury to the Congress of Berlin. From 1882 to 1885 he was acting senior clerk at the Foreign Office, and senior clerk from 1889 to 1894. In the latter year Bertie was appointed assistant under-secretary of state for foreign affairs, a position which he held until 1903 when, after his long term of service at the Foreign Office, he was sent as ambassador to Rome. He only remained there a year, being transferred at the beginning of 1905 to Paris, where he remained for thirteen years, his term of service being twice prolonged.
When Bertie came to Paris, the Anglo-French entente, concluded 8 April 1904, was barely nine months old. The Russo-Japanese War was still raging, though Russia was practically defeated. France was the ally of Russia, and Great Britain of Japan. Germany, believing France to have been weakened by the Russian disasters, and wishing to break the French entente with England, suddenly raised the question of Morocco, in which France had been promised British diplomatic support. The German Emperor’s visit to Tangier, 31 March 1905, was intended to prove to France the worthlessness of British assurances. In this crisis Bertie’s firm straightforwardness was conspicuously revealed; and, despite the ejection of M. Delcassé from the French Foreign Office at the instance of Germany, Bertie’s composure helped the French government to recover from panic and to follow the policy which triumphed at the Algeciras Conference of 1906.
During the European crisis brought on by the Austro-Hungarian annexation of Bosnia-Herzegovina in October 1908, Bertie’s aim was to preserve the Anglo-French entente. Though he distrusted the Russian foreign minister, Isvolsky, by dint of plain speaking and upright conduct he kept the confidence of the French government as fully as that of his own. Later on, when a policy of economic and financial co-operation, as a prelude to political co-operation, between France and
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