John Cornwell
- This article is about John Travers Cornwell, also known as Jack Cornwell or Boy Cornwell, a hero of the First World War. For the article about a writer about the Roman Catholic Church, see John Cornwell (writer).
| John Travers Cornwell | |
|---|---|
| 8 January, 1900 - 2 June, 1916 | |
 John Cornwell VC |
|
| Place of birth | Leyton, Essex |
| Place of death | Grimsby General Hospital |
| Allegiance | 
United Kingdom |
| Service/branch |  Royal Navy |
| Years of service | 1915 to 1916 |
| Rank | Boy Seaman 1st Class |
| Unit | HMS Chester |
| Battles/wars | Battle of Jutland |
| Awards | Victoria Cross |
John Travers Cornwell VC (8 January 1900 - 2 June 1916) usually known as Jack Cornwell, is remembered for his gallantry at the Battle of Jutland aged just 16, for which he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. He is also known as Boy Cornwell.
Life
John "Jack" Travers Cornwell was born as a third child into a working-class family at Clyde Place, Leyton, Essex (now in Greater London). His parents were Eli and Alice Cornwell. The family later moved to Alverstone Road, East Ham. He joined the Boy Scouts but left school at the age of 14. At the outbreak of the First World War, ex-soldier Eli Cornwell volunteered for service and was fighting in France under Lord Kitchener. The older brother Arthur also served in an infantry regiment in Flanders.
In October 1915 Jack Cornwell gave up his job as a delivery boy and enlisted into the Royal Navy, without his father's permission. He had references from his headmaster and employer. He carried out his basic training at Keynham Naval Barracks at Plymouth and received further training as a Sight Setter or Gun Layer and became Boy Seaman First Class. On the Easter Monday of 1916, Cornwell left for Rosyth, Scotland to join his assignment in the navy. He was assigned to HMS Chester.
Battle of Jutland
On May 31 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. It soon came under intense fire from four Kaiserliche Marine cruisers each her own size which had suddenly emerged out of 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. The Chester's gun mountings were open backed shields and did not reach the deck. Splinters were thus able to pass under them or enter the open back when shells exploded nearby or behind. Although severely wounded Cornwell remained at his post until Chester retired from the action with only one main gun still working. Chester had received a total of 18 hits but partial hull armour meant the interior of the ship suffered little serious damage and the ship was never in peril. The situation on deck, however, was a bloody shambles. Many of the gun crews had lost lower limbs due to splinters passing under the gun shields. British ships report 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 or shock.
After the action Cornwell was found to be sole survivor 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, although he was clearly dying. He died June 2 1916 before his mother could arrive at the hospital.
Victoria Cross
Three months later, Captain Robert Lawson of Chester described the events to the British Admiralty. Though at first reluctant, the Admiralty eventually decided to recommend Cornwell for a posthumous Victoria Cross and King George V endorsed it. The recommendation for citation from his Commanding Officer, Admiral Beatty, reads:
"the instance of devotion to duty by Boy (1st Class) John Travers Cornwell who was mortally wounded early in the action, but nevertheless remained standing alone at a most exposed post, quietly awaiting orders till the end of the action, with the gun's crew dead and wounded around him. He was under 16½ years old. I regret that he has since died, but I recommend his case for special recognition in justice to his memory and as an acknowledgement of the high example set by him."
Jack Cornwell was initially buried in a common grave in Manor Park Cemetery, London, but his body was exhumed on
29 July 1916 and he was reburied with full military honours also
in Manor Park Cemerery. Jack Cornwell's father Eli was buried in the same cemetery a few months later having died from
bronchitis during home service with the Royal Defence
Corps. The epitaph to Jack Cornwell on his grave monument reads,
but honourable conduct and a noble disposition
that maketh men great."
On November 16 1916, Cornwell's mother received the
Victoria Cross from King George V at Buckingham Palace. Court painter Frank O. Salisbury made a portrait of Cornwell,
using his brother Ernest as a model, depicting him standing in his post. Boy Cornwell Memorial Fund was also established.
After that, the rest of the family was effectively forgotten. After Eli Cornwell's death on October
26 1916, his step-brother Arthur Cornwell was killed in action in France in August 1918.
Impoverished Alice Cornwell died at Stepney on October 31
Remembrance
Sir Robert Baden-Powell, leader of the Scout movement, created a Cornwell Medal. The Cornwell Decoration, struck in his honour, is awarded by Scouting organizations throughout the Commonwealth. It is awarded to youth members for fortitude in the face of severe adversity. A Jack Cornwell Street was named in his honour in Manor Park, Newham in the Little Ilford area (London E12) and there is also a pub on that road named The Victoria Cross to commemorate his achievement of the medal. Mount Cornwell in the Kananaskis Range of the Canadian Rockies was named in his honour in 1918. A group of memorial cottages in Hornchurch, Essex bear his name. The 5.5-inch gun on which he served is still displayed in the Imperial War Museum, London. In 2006 it was announced that Jack Cornwell VC would feature in a series of Royal Mail postage stamps marking the 150th anniversary of the Victoria Cross.
Jack Cornwell is also remembered by Sea Cadets for whom he has set the example of seamanship and duty. Since 2003, the Cadets have been planning to commemorate him by renaming an east London school in Leyton after him. In Cornwell's time the school was known as Farmer Road School; it is currently named George Mitchell School after another former pupil, George Allan Mitchell, who won a VC in Italy during the World War II. Cornwell Close in Grimsby is named after him.
External links
- Sea Cadets
- John Travers Cornwell (biography)
- Location of grave and VC medal (E. London)
- A 'Scouting Milestones' history of Jack Cornwell written from the Scouting perspective and containing much original material, including a fully documented account of Jack Cornwell's first burial in the 'common grave'.
- Find-A-Grave profile for John Cornwell
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