{{Short description|Royal Navy Admiral (1855–1932)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}} {{Infobox military person |honorific_prefix = Admiral |name = Sir Alexander Bethell |honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCMG|KCB}} |birth_date= {{birth date|df=yes|1855|8|28}} |death_date= {{death date and age|df=yes|1932|6|13|1855|8|28}} |birth_place=London, England |death_place= London, England |image=Admiral Hon Sir Alexander Edward Bethel Kcb Art.IWMART1719.jpg |caption=1917 portrait by Francis Dodd |nickname= |allegiance= United Kingdom |service_years=1869–1918 |rank= Admiral |commands= HMS ''Arethusa''<br>HMS ''Naiad''<br>HMS ''Hindustan''<br>East Indies Station<br>Royal Naval College, Greenwich<br>Plymouth Command<br>Coastguards and Reserves |branch= Royal Navy |unit= |battles=World War I |awards=Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George<br>Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath |other_work= |relations= Richard Bethell, 3rd Baron Westbury, brother }} Admiral '''Sir Alexander Edward Bethell''' {{post-nominals|country=GBR|size=100%|GCMG|KCB}} (28 August 1855 – 13 June 1932) was a British naval officer who served as Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth of the Royal Navy.

==Naval career== Born the second son of Richard Augustus Bethell, 2nd Baron Westbury,<ref name=wade>{{Cite web |url=http://www.combestnicholas.org.uk/about_the_parish/Bethell%20family.pdf |title=The Bethell Family and Wadeford House |access-date=14 August 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100326091131/http://www.combestnicholas.org.uk/about_the_parish/Bethell%20family.pdf |archive-date=26 March 2010 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Bethell joined the Royal Navy in 1869.<ref name=lh>[http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/locreg/BETHELL.shtml Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives]</ref> In July–August 1899 he commanded the ''Arethusa'', which was commissioned for the annual manoeuvres.<ref name=NavyListAug99>''Navy List, August 1899, corrected to 18 July 1899 - Supplement: Ships and Officers Engaged in the Naval Manoeuvres'', page 28.</ref> He was given command of the cruiser HMS ''Naiad'' serving in the Mediterranean Fleet in March 1901, and landed the Somaliland Field Force in East Africa<ref name=wade/> before returning to the United Kingdom to become assistant director of torpedoes.<ref name=lh/> He was given command of the battleship HMS ''Hindustan'' in 1908.<ref name=wade/> He was appointed Director of Naval Intelligence in 1909.<ref name=lh/>

In that capacity he attended the famous CID meeting on 23 August, at which the government rejected the Royal Navy's proposal that 5 divisions guard Britain whilst one land on the Baltic coast in the event of war with Germany. Instead the Army's plan, to send an Expeditionary Force of between four and six divisions to France, was adopted.<ref>Jeffery 2006, p96-7</ref> He was appointed Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station in 1912.<ref name=lh/> He was appointed Officer Commanding the Royal Navy War College at Portsmouth in 1913.<ref name=lh/>

He served in World War I as Commander, Battleships for the 3rd Fleet.<ref name=lh/> He was President of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, from 1914 to 1915 and was appointed Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth, in 1916 and Admiral commanding the Coastguards and Reserves in 1918.<ref name=lh/> He retired later that year.<ref name=lh/>

He lived at Wadeford House in Combe St Nicholas in Somerset.<ref name=wade/> He died in a London nursing home on 13 June 1932.<ref>Admiral Sir Alexander Bethell" (Obituaries). The Times. Wednesday, 15 June 1932. Issue 46160, col C, p. 9.</ref>

==Family== In 1890 he married Hilda Huntsman; they had two sons and a daughter.<ref name=wade/> Both his sons were killed in World War I.<ref name=wade/>

==References== {{reflist}}

==Books== * {{cite book|last=Jeffery|first=Keith|title=Field Marshal Sir Henry Wilson: A Political Soldier|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-19-820358-2}}

==External links== *[http://dreadnoughtproject.org/tfs/index.php/Alexander_Edward_Bethell The Dreadnought Project - Alexander Bethell]

{{s-start}} {{s-mil}} {{s-bef|before=Edmond Slade}} {{s-ttl|title=Director of Naval Intelligence|years=1909–1912}} {{s-aft|after=Thomas Jackson}} |- {{succession box | title=Commander-in-Chief, East Indies Station | before=Sir Edmond Slade| after=Sir Richard Peirse|years=1912}} |- {{s-bef|before=Sir Frederic Fisher}} {{s-ttl|title=President, Royal Naval College, Greenwich|years=1914&ndash;1915}} {{s-aft|after=Sir Lewis Bayly}} |- {{succession box | title=Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth | years=1916&ndash;1918 | before=Sir George Warrender| after=Sir Cecil Thursby}} {{end}} {{Directors of Naval Intelligence}}

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bethell, Alexander}} Category:1855 births Category:1932 deaths Category:Royal Navy admirals Category:Royal Navy admirals of World War I Category:Knights Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George Category:Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Category:Directors of Naval Intelligence Category:Admiral presidents of the Royal Naval College, Greenwich Category:Younger sons of barons Category:Military personnel from London Category:19th-century Royal Navy personnel