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Jack Cornwell
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Jack Cornwell
John Travers Cornwell VC (8 January 1900–2 June 1916), commonly known as Jack Cornwell or as Boy Cornwell, is remembered for his gallantry at the Battle of Jutland during World War I. Having died at the age of only 16, he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Cornwell is the third-youngest recipient of the VC after Andrew Fitzgibbon and Thomas Flynn.
John "Jack" Travers Cornwell was born as the third child of a working-class family at Clyde Place, Leyton, Essex (now in Greater London). His parents were Eli and Lily Cornwell; he had a sister and three brothers, as well as two half-siblings from his father's previous marriage. The family later moved to Alverstone Road, East Ham. He left Walton Road School at the standard age of 14. At the outbreak of the First World War, his father, an ex-soldier, volunteered for service and fought in France. His older brother Arthur also served as an infantryman on the Western Front.
In October 1915, Jack Cornwell gave up his job as a delivery boy and enlisted in the Royal Navy without his father's permission. He had references from his headmaster and employer. He carried out his basic training at HMS Vivid Keyham Naval Barracks in Plymouth. He received further training as a Sight Setter or Gun Layer and became a Boy Seaman 1st Class. On Easter Monday 1916, Cornwell left for Rosyth, Scotland, to join HMS Chester.
On 31 May 1916, Chester was scouting ahead of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron at the Battle of Jutland when the ship turned to investigate gunfire in the distance. At 17:30 hours, Chester came under intense fire from four Kaiserliche Marine cruisers that were each her own size. They had emerged from the haze and increasing funnel smoke of the battlefield. The shielded 5.5-inch gun mounting where Cornwell was serving as a sight-setter was affected by at least four nearby hits. Chester's gun mountings were open-backed shields and did not reach down to the deck. Splinters were thus able to pass under them or enter the open back when shells exploded nearby or behind. All the gun's crew were killed or mortally injured except Cornwell, who, although severely wounded, managed to stand up again and remain at his post for more than 15 minutes, until Chester retired from the action with only one main battery gun still working. Chester had received 18 hits, but partial hull armour meant that the interior of the ship suffered little serious damage and the ship itself was never in peril of sinking. Nevertheless, the situation on deck was dire. British ships reported passing the Chester to cheers from limbless wounded gun crew laid out on her deck and smoking cigarettes, only to hear that the same crewmen had died a few hours later from blood loss and shock.
After the action, medics arrived on deck to find Cornwell the sole survivor standing at his gun, shards of steel penetrating his chest, looking at the gun sights and still waiting for orders. Being incapable of further action, Chester was ordered to the port of Immingham. There Cornwell was transferred to Grimsby General Hospital. He died shortly before 8:00am on the morning of 2 June 1916, before his mother could arrive at the hospital.
Jack Cornwell was initially buried in a common grave (Square 126 Grave 323) in Manor Park Cemetery, London. His body was exhumed on 29 July 1916[citation needed] and he was reburied with full military honours in the same cemetery (square 55 grave 13). Cornwell's father Eli, who died aged 64 in October 1916 during home service with the Royal Defence Corps, was buried in the same cemetery. The epitaph to Jack Cornwell on his grave monument reads "It is not wealth or ancestry but honourable conduct and a noble disposition that maketh men great."
In May 2016, the family grave and war memorial, erected in 1920, was given Grade II listed status, legally protecting it from unauthorised modification or removal.
Though at first reluctant, the British Admiralty decided to recommend Cornwell for a posthumous Victoria Cross and King George V endorsed it. The recommendation for citation, from Admiral David Beatty, reads:
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Jack Cornwell
John Travers Cornwell VC (8 January 1900–2 June 1916), commonly known as Jack Cornwell or as Boy Cornwell, is remembered for his gallantry at the Battle of Jutland during World War I. Having died at the age of only 16, he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces. Cornwell is the third-youngest recipient of the VC after Andrew Fitzgibbon and Thomas Flynn.
John "Jack" Travers Cornwell was born as the third child of a working-class family at Clyde Place, Leyton, Essex (now in Greater London). His parents were Eli and Lily Cornwell; he had a sister and three brothers, as well as two half-siblings from his father's previous marriage. The family later moved to Alverstone Road, East Ham. He left Walton Road School at the standard age of 14. At the outbreak of the First World War, his father, an ex-soldier, volunteered for service and fought in France. His older brother Arthur also served as an infantryman on the Western Front.
In October 1915, Jack Cornwell gave up his job as a delivery boy and enlisted in the Royal Navy without his father's permission. He had references from his headmaster and employer. He carried out his basic training at HMS Vivid Keyham Naval Barracks in Plymouth. He received further training as a Sight Setter or Gun Layer and became a Boy Seaman 1st Class. On Easter Monday 1916, Cornwell left for Rosyth, Scotland, to join HMS Chester.
On 31 May 1916, Chester was scouting ahead of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron at the Battle of Jutland when the ship turned to investigate gunfire in the distance. At 17:30 hours, Chester came under intense fire from four Kaiserliche Marine cruisers that were each her own size. They had emerged from the haze and increasing funnel smoke of the battlefield. The shielded 5.5-inch gun mounting where Cornwell was serving as a sight-setter was affected by at least four nearby hits. Chester's gun mountings were open-backed shields and did not reach down to the deck. Splinters were thus able to pass under them or enter the open back when shells exploded nearby or behind. All the gun's crew were killed or mortally injured except Cornwell, who, although severely wounded, managed to stand up again and remain at his post for more than 15 minutes, until Chester retired from the action with only one main battery gun still working. Chester had received 18 hits, but partial hull armour meant that the interior of the ship suffered little serious damage and the ship itself was never in peril of sinking. Nevertheless, the situation on deck was dire. British ships reported passing the Chester to cheers from limbless wounded gun crew laid out on her deck and smoking cigarettes, only to hear that the same crewmen had died a few hours later from blood loss and shock.
After the action, medics arrived on deck to find Cornwell the sole survivor standing at his gun, shards of steel penetrating his chest, looking at the gun sights and still waiting for orders. Being incapable of further action, Chester was ordered to the port of Immingham. There Cornwell was transferred to Grimsby General Hospital. He died shortly before 8:00am on the morning of 2 June 1916, before his mother could arrive at the hospital.
Jack Cornwell was initially buried in a common grave (Square 126 Grave 323) in Manor Park Cemetery, London. His body was exhumed on 29 July 1916[citation needed] and he was reburied with full military honours in the same cemetery (square 55 grave 13). Cornwell's father Eli, who died aged 64 in October 1916 during home service with the Royal Defence Corps, was buried in the same cemetery. The epitaph to Jack Cornwell on his grave monument reads "It is not wealth or ancestry but honourable conduct and a noble disposition that maketh men great."
In May 2016, the family grave and war memorial, erected in 1920, was given Grade II listed status, legally protecting it from unauthorised modification or removal.
Though at first reluctant, the British Admiralty decided to recommend Cornwell for a posthumous Victoria Cross and King George V endorsed it. The recommendation for citation, from Admiral David Beatty, reads:
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