2016-09-29 Thu

Jack Travers Cornwell was the youngest sailor who sacrificed his life in the battle of Jutland. !00 years after his death, a special 5-pound commemorative coin was released by the Royal Mint to honour his services to the nation on 21st September 2016.

Cornwell boarded the HMS Chester at Keyham Naval Barracks, Devonport after he quickly graduated from a boy recruit to a sight setter. A month later, sixteen-year-old Jack was declared dead by hospital authorities.?

He was killed and cut down by mortar debris during the Battle of Jutland in the North Sea. His ship was hit by the German artillery fire which he survived. But he was badly wounded. The ship escaped the German High Fleet and headed to the Humber estuary. But three days later, Jack succumbed to the wounds in the hospital ward.

6,094 British sailors killed in the battle and Cornwell was the youngest of them all. His stories became a military folklore and he - a brave national hero.

The British Grand Fleet clashed with the Germany Imperial Navy in the first and only major naval attack of the First World War.

Thousands of lives were lost at Jutland but the battle was declared stalemate as Germans reverted to a strategy of submarine warfare until the war's conclusion. Both sides claimed victory, but there was no end result.

In September 2006, Jack Cornwell VC was featured on one of a series of Royal Mail postage stamps marking the 150th anniversary of the Victoria Cross.

His great nephew Alex Saradis who also serves the Royal Navy today, was present at the time of the coin reslease.