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The Battle of Jutland & Jack Cornwell

John Travers Cornwell V.C., Boy Seaman First Class, Royal Navy,16 years of age, had always yearned to be a sailor. In the October of 1915 he had thrown up his job as a delivery boy with the Brooke Bond Tea Company, and enlisted in the Royal Navy. His father, Eli was a tram driver but had joined Kitcheners Army, and was fighting in France. He came from a very ordinary home in East Ham, the Cockney area of London Town, and he had no idea that when he signed that enlistment paper, his name would be etched into the Roll of Honour of British Military History, forever.

t the tender age of 15, he carried out his basic training at Keynham Naval Barracks at Plymouth, with youthful exhuberance. He was then selected because of his keeness for detail and quick wit, for further training as a Sight Setter or Gun Layer, a most responsible position on board a ship of war. In Nelson's day this would have been the job of a Gun Captain, who was usually a very mature & hardily seasoned sailor. The intensive training was difficult for a boy just barely out of school, but with the help and guidance of a friendly London Police Sergeant, he passed out as Boy Seaman, First Class. Being a regular churchgoer, he was also confirmed at Plymouth by the Padre, and it was a proud young man that went home that first time, in his naval uniform, emblazoned with the flashes of rank upon his sleeve.

On Easter Monday 1916, Jack said his farewell's to his family at King's Cross Station, for he had been ordered by telegram to join units of the fleet at Rosyth, Scotland. His Mother worried and fussed over him, but Jack said, Mam, it's what I joined up for, I have to go it is my duty. And so upon his arrival at Rosyth, he saw an awe inspiring sight. Battleships and Battlecruisers were laid at anchor in the sound, the like of which he had only seen pictures of, a dream come true. He was in due course appointed to HMS. Chester of the 3rd Cruiser Squadron.

On 31st. May 1916, the cruiser HMS.Chester was on station screening ahead of the fleet,in the misty North Sea. Distant gunfire was heard by her lookouts, and her Captain knowing that they were due to meet with Admiral Beatty's Battle Group, ordered the ship to full speed to investigate.
Action Stations resounded through the ship, bugles hastening the crew to their positions, as Chester began to slice into the grey waves. Jack Cornwell diligently standing by his gun, listening intently in his earphones for orders from the Gunnery Officer (Guns), who was high up in the control tower. It probably occurred to him whilst waiting, that when he went home on leave after all this, that there would be no shortage of admiring glances from the pretty girls in East Ham High Street, as he boldly strode for the first time into a public house, for a quench of good English ale.

If you have read the preceding pages, you will have realised that this sea battle was to become quite unique in naval warfare. For it was fought at high speed and what was good one minute, was bad the next. If you read the eye witness accounts, there will be no doubt that this was rather more like a cavalry engagement, than the formal way of combat that was the way of things past.

As Chester hurtled out of the mist at 29 knots, there just ahead were 4 German Cruisers. She began heeling immediately to port so that her broadside armament could bear, and opened fire.
HMS. Chester fought gallantly but was no match for the combined firepower of 4 enemy cruisers, and subsequently took severe punishment. In all, she was hit seventeen times by major calibre shells. Four of these impacted around the gun turret that was Jack's position. The ship was reduced to a shambles, only one gun being operational. All around Jack, men were laid dying and horribly mutilated by shrapnel, he himself had felt the red hot shard of steel penetrate his chest. With grim determination he stood fast to his post, patiently awaiting orders from the control tower, as the cauldron exploded around him. Jack did not know it, but he was mortally wounded. He remained standing alone at his station, until Admiral Hood's Dreadnought's appeared, their heavy guns allowing Chester to disengage. Medics then were able to go to Jack's aid and take him below.

Chester was incapable of further action and was ordered post haste to the Humber and the port of Immingham. As she steamed into the river, tugs were waiting to remove the wounded. Jack was gently being lowered onto a tug when the Captain appeared on deck, being wounded himself, he looked at Jack and exclaimed, A cheer for the Royal Navy, Hip Hip, Hurrah. To which everyone responded with great affection, one Grimsby seaman, George Ball, stated that it was the proudest moment of his life. Jack was rushed to Grimsby General Hospital and was attended by Admiralty Surgeon, Dr. C.S.Stephenson, but sadly to no avail.

Dr. Stevenson found the boy to be wonderfully brave when told that nothing could be done for him. The Matron asked him how it had been and he replied, we carried on O.K. Later just before he died he said to her, Give my love to my Mother, I know she is on her way here. He died on June 2nd. 1916, and at 16 years of age was laid to rest in Scartho Road Cemetary.

Three months later HMS. Chester's Captain related his story of the action to the
Admiralty. The revelations concerning the boys devotion to duty resulted in an immediate
recommendation for the highest decoration that could be given.

King George V. gave his endorsement for the Victoria Cross.

After Jack had died of his wounds recieved at the Battle of Jutland, he was buried in an ordinary war grave at Scartho Road Cemetery, Grimsby. At that time the full facts of his devotion to duty were not fully known, and three months were to pass before Chester's Captain clearly described the events to the Admiralty. On the left is a picture of a Miss Mary Broom, ( now Mrs. Bonner ), who according to the article sent Jack's Mother the telegram informing her of his death. Miss Broom's standing or rank is unknown to me at this time. Sorry about the Quality of some of these photographs, even my Photoshop programme cannot create a miracle, but it has done a pretty good job compared to the original copy.

The Admiralty immediately recommended the boy for the highest honour, and promptly drew up the necessary papers required to have his body exhumed. in due course this happened, and Jack's coffin was taken by train to London for re-burial with full military honours. It is perhaps of some interest for you to know that Grimsby General where Jack died, has been knocked down now, but the new Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital with a ward named in his memory, stands on Scartho Road. In fact the Jack Cornwell Ward actually looks straight across the road to Scartho Road Cemetery were he was originally buried.

King George V., dutifully endorsed the Admiralty's recommendation for the Victoria Cross. And preparations were made for the boy's State Funeral. Following is the full transcript of his fitting re-burial, as reported in the Grimsby Evening Telegraph, the date unknown other than it is in fact 1916.

John Travers Cornwell.
Boy Hero's Public Funeral.

With full naval and civic honours the remains of John Travers Cornwell, the 16 year old hero of the Jutland Battle, were borne to Manor Park Cemetery on Saturday, and laid to rest in a pleasant corner, under the shade of a stately plane tree.

Dr. Macnamara M.P. Attended to represent the Admiralty, and Sir John Beshell M.P., and the Mayor and Corporation of East Ham were present. The boy's father Mr. Eli Cornwell, in khaki, as a reservist of the 10th. Essex Regiment, accompanied by Mrs. Cornwell and 3 sons were the chief mourners, while other relatives included two of the boys uncles and several of his cousins.

The funeral procession formed up at East Ham Town Hall, and headed by a firing party of the Royal Naval Division with full band, moved off shortly after 3 o'clock. The oak coffin covered with the Union Jack and bearing several magnificent floral tributes, was placed upon a gun carriage and drawn by a naval gun crew. Eighty of Cornwell's old school mates from the Walton Road School, the Band of St. Nicholas School and the local Boy Scouts and Ilford Naval Cadets walked in the procession.

Tremendous crowds witnessed the funeral, the whole route of two miles to the cemetery being lined by dense masses of people.

Dr. Macnamara spoke at the grave side, I am here, he said, to pay my tribute of respect to the memory of a hero, and in the name of the Royal Navy to lay at his grave, a wreath of tender loving thoughts. He died inscribing his name imperishably upon the roll of British honour and glory. His grave will be the birthplace of hero's, from which will spring an inspiration that will make the spirit more dauntless and the purpose more noble for generations of British subjects yet unborn, the wide world over.

National Memorial.

Admiral Lord Beresford writes that it has been finally decided, with the approval of the boy's parents, that the national memorial to Cornwell shall take the following form : -
1. The endowment in perpetuity of a Jack Cornwell Ward to be reserved for disabled sailors in the Star and Garter Home at Richmond. Every boy and girl attending school throughout the British Empire will be invited to give one penny towards the ward.
2. The provision of Jack Cornwell cottage homes for disabled and invalided sailors and their families.
3. Naval scholarships for deserving boys.
4. A suitable monument on Cornwell's grave in Manor Park Cemetery to be erected by the school children of East Ham.

Jack Cornwell's Epitaph upon the Monument.

It is not wealth or ancestry,
but honourable conduct and a noble disposition, A that maketh men great.

John Travers Cornwell's parents were Eli and Alice Cornwell. From what I can make out from my records, he had two sisters and three brothers: Alice (an elder half-sister), Ernest Edward (the eldest brother), Lily (a younger sister), George (a younger brother) and Arthur Frederick (I'm not sure where he was in the pecking order I'm afraid).

The father never lived to see his son's VC, dying a few months after the battle of Jutland on 25 October 1916. He had served previously in Egypt and South Africa and then volunteered at the outbreak of the Great War as a Private in the 57th Coy. Royal Defence Corps.

His mother received her son's VC from HM King George V at Buckingham Palace on 16 November 1916. She died at the family home in Commercial Rd, Stepney on 31 October 1919, aged 54.

His half-sister married a chap named Payne and they lived, together with the younger sister and their own three children, in the poorer quarter of Leyton. Her husband was disabled during the war. She presented, on loan, Jack's VC to the Imperial War Museum on 27 November 1968. She was 78 at the time and living in Woodford Green.

His younger sister received a share of the monies collected from a grateful nation from the Cornwell Memorial Fund and emigrated to Canada, aged just 18, on 10 November 1923. Lack of work took a heavy toll on all members of the Cornwell family. Work was found for her in Canada by the Canadian Red Cross Society.

George became a steward on a liner, and also ended up in Canada. Lily joined him there when she emigrated in 1923.

Ernest Edward also served in the Royal Navy during the war. He remained behind in England when his younger siblings emigrated.

Arthur Frederick was killed in action in France in August 1918.

The family home in Commercial Rd was eventually built over sometime before 1923.