Stella Browne: some family background stuff

Her grandfather, William Lindsay Browne, was in the Navy, served in the first Opium War in 1842 and was awarded a campaign medal. He was also employed on anti-slave trade patrols during the 1820s and a range of other duties throughout the range of the British Empire, literally from China to Peru. William's father and grandfather were RN men also, it is believed: his grandfather died in the defence of Savannah during the American War of Independence, and his father served with great distinction during the Napoleonic period.

Maybe this was why she found the Battle of Jutland so inspiring, or so she wrote to Margaret Sanger in 1916:

the news of the North Sea Battle makes me feel very British again. That cruiser squadron which fought the whole German High Sea Fleet for seven  hours, till Jellicoe's main squadron came along, and the Germans bolted for Kiel! 

although she followed this outbreak of enthusiasm with the perhaps more characteristic comment:

all the men dead and on both sides: and for what? Junker tyranny over there and Northcliffe dictatorship here--or so it seems.