John ‘Jack’ Travers Cornwell
When we think of acts of courage in war, we often imagine grown men standing strong against bullets and bombs. But in the First World War, many much younger people exhibited incredible bravery far beyond that expected for people of their years.
John Travers Cornwell (known as “Jack) was scarcely a child when the First World War forced him to behave with the utmost gallantry in the heat of battle. He was born in 1900, in what is now part of the area of Greater London, England, to a working-class family, his father being a former soldier. He attended a local school, like most boys at the time, and left education at the standard school-leaving age of 14.
When the First World War broke out in August 1914, Cornwell’s father enlisted as a soldier to fight among some of the first British forces to confront the Germans in France under Lord Kitchener. His brother Arthur also fought in France for an infantry regiment. It wasn’t until October 1915, when Cornwell was that much older, the war had been dragging on longer than military planners had originally anticipated and with many boys and young men clamouring to join to serve their country, that Cornwell quit his job as a delivery boy and enrolled in the Royal Navy without obtaining his father’s permission.
Cornwell completed his basic training at HMS Vivid Keyham Naval Barracks in Plymouth and obtained the rank of Boy Seaman First Class. At Easter 1916, Cornwell travelled to Rosyth, Scotland, where he joined his first assignment in the navy on HMS Chester. As the major clash between the Royal Navy and the German Imperial Navy known as the Battle of Jutland raged in the North Sea on May 31, 1916, the Chester scouted ahead of the Royal Navy’s 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron, looking for enemy craft to attack and sink. When its crew heard gunfire in the distance, it steered towards the sound. At around 5:30pm, four German naval vessels emerged from the haze and smoke of the battlefield and bombarded the Chester with intense gunfire. When the German vessels attacked, Cornwell was positioned at a shielded 5.5-inch gun with the rest of its crew, ready to perform his duty as a sight-setter. During the confrontation that followed, at least four hits from enemy fire landed near to the gun, splinters and shrapnel killing or fatally wounding all of the gun’s crew apart from Cornwell. Though shards of steel penetrated his chest, Cornwell remained at this post for fifteen minutes throughout the skirmish until the Chester withdrew from the fray. The Chester was left with eighteen holes in it and only one gun working. Medics from another ship arrived onboard after the action to find Cornwell the only man left alive at his gun crew, still staring through the gun sights, waiting for orders.
HMS Chester was deemed incapable of further military engagements for the time being and was accordingly docked at the port of Immingham, England, to undergo essential repairs. From there, Cornwell was transferred to Grimsby General Hospital, where he died on June 2, 1916. Tragically, his mother arrived at the hospital after he had passed away.
Cornwell was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest award British and Commonwealth forces can receive for gallantry in the face of the enemy.