One day, in the summer of 1917, a group of people were standing before
a large picture which was hung upon the wall of one of the rooms in the
Royal Academy.
The painting showed a wounded sailor-boy standing on the deck of a
warship near the shield of a naval gun while shells were bursting all
round him, and the gun’s crew were lying dead or wounded at his feet.
“What did he do?” asked a lady after looking closely at the picture
for some time. “Oh,” said a gentleman who was with her, “he just stuck
it, you know.” That was all that the boy had done, “just stuck it” at
the post of honour, although hurt so cruelly that he afterwards died.
But his simple action had been enough to rouse the admiration of the
whole British Empire, to win for him the Victoria Cross, and to afford
an example to every boy and man in the British Navy. There were many
brave deeds done in the Battle of Jutland, but when Admiral Beatty
afterwards made out his report it was John Travers Cornwell whom he
picked out as at least one glorious example.
The boy won his Cross at the Battle of Jutland Bank, which began in the
afternoon of Wednesday, May 31st, of the year 1916. This fight was one
of the most important naval battles of the Great War and might have
been as momentous as Trafalgar if the Germans had not retired when
Admiral Jellicoe came up to the aid of Admiral Beatty with the Grand
Fleet.
We can form some idea of the terrible nature of the battle from the
British losses. These included six of the larger ships and eight
destroyers, as well as a large number of brave British sailors. But the
German losses were very much heavier, both in ships and men.
One of the British ships engaged in the fight was H.M.S. _Chester_,
the crew of which included the boy John Travers Cornwell, whose age was
about 16½ years. He belonged to a party whose duty it was to work one
of the guns, and during the first part of the fighting he received a
very bad wound.
But he stayed at his post in a most exposed position, and went quietly
on with his work though the men of the gun crew fell, one by one, dead
or dying around him. He was hurt again and again, but he did not give
up. He stood waiting for orders with the speaking tube at his ears,
until the fight was over, when he was taken tenderly below.
His captain afterwards wrote of him to his mother:--“The wounds which
resulted in his death were received in the first few minutes of the
action. He remained steady at his most exposed post at the gun, waiting
for orders.... He felt that he might be needed--as indeed he might have
been--so he stayed there, standing and waiting under heavy fire, with
just his own brave heart and God’s help to support him.”
After the battle the boy was taken to a hospital at Grimsby. He was
attended with the greatest care, but his wounds were too severe to be
cured. Cornwell had indeed been “faithful unto death.”
Before he died some one asked him what he and his mates were doing
during that terrible time. “Oh,” said the dying boy, “we were just
carrying on.”