Admiral Charles William de la Poer Beresford, First Baron Beresford, G.C.B., G.C.V.O., Royal Navy was an officer of the Royal Navy.
Born in Curraghmore, Waterford County, Ireland, on February 10 1846 he was son of a Protestant minister and his wife. Beresford enjoyed a career in the Royal Navy and as a Member of Parliament for the Unionist cause. His indomitable spirit gave him the nickname of Charlie B — a pun on England’s John Bull. He died shortly after attending President Theodore Roosevelt’s funeral from pneumonia on 6 September, 1919 . The similarities in these two political / military lives is striking.
Highlights of his Chart
- Southern bowl temperament
- Gestalt Mental Chemistry
- Line of Vitality in opposition
- Line of Efficiency semisquare.
- Line of Culture inconjunct.
- Line of Motivation is quintile.
- With his North Node in the Tenth House, Donna van Toen in her The Nodes Book, writes this placement give the native a tendency to dream of success by overcoming educational, familial and status limitations by rising above his station in life. Often he does this by gaining the support of authority figures or others who are in a position to help. Difficulties with one or both parents are common.
- None of that is pertinent to the Lord Admiral so perhaps we should view the north Node in the eleventh as it is 1 degree away. If so, Ms. van Toen writes : In the eleventh house, hang-ups can involve honesty, knowledge, or ethics – all things that would seem to correlate more with Sagittarius / ninth house at first glance. Where North Node in Sagittarius / ninth leans towards lack of discrimination and fanaticism, the eleventh house North Node takes a cold, dispassionate approach. Whatever is perceived to be the truth or the right way is done without concern about the damage that may be done particularly if the “truth” is biased or flawed . Relationships are often spoiled by this attitude of ‘honesty is the best policy’ that is construed as brutal and demeaning.
- Ascendant is 01 Capricorn, the HS of a whirlpool — a force of irresistible strength and force of nature.
- Part of Conviction conjunct Midheaven (career) and Jupiter exalted in its own house in the ninth. It would be hard to tell him he was wrong OTOH he was a fierce and courage fighter for his beliefs.
- Part of Fortune conjunct Mercury in the 12th.
- Part of Relevance conjunct Part of Fortune in the 12th.
Excerpts from the Lord Admirals writings
- Here is a site discussing his book on the reasons for breaking China. it was written in 1899 five years before both the Boxer Rebellion in China against foreigners & the Kerensky in Russia against the Tsar.
- Archive.org has his memoirs written when he as 50 and made quite a stir on both sides of the Atlantic. It begins with his viewing of the Royal Fleet in 1858 as it came to winter in the harbour of Waterford County and ends in 1909 when he retired and became a landlubber. There is little on his private life as one would expect from a Southern bowl and dedicated to his brother officers of the Royal Navy; it details the many ships he served and military actions he saw in his career. It is well written and I enjoyed the pages I read.
Memoirs of Lord Charles Beresford Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1914, volume 1. 22 illustrations are within.
“Seamen often curse and swear when they are aloft furling or reefing sails in a gale of wind; but I have never heard a sailor blaspheme on these occasions. Their language is merely a mode speaking. Although in the old days I have heard men blaspheme on deck, blasphemy was never heard aloft perhaps because they felt they were closer to the Almighty where he could hear them.”
