What are the Defeated Dead worth

Written by Godfrey Dykes

©RN Communications Branch Museum/Library

Well, back in WW1, 'PRIZE MONEY' was the norm and in fact every royal sailor was rewarded with a useful amount of cash paid out to him (in a one-off payment) of the raising and selling of the German High Seas Fleet scuttled at Scapa flow after the war. Some were very well rewarded, but even a humble able seaman received three months pay as a prize money bonus. This wasn't repeated at the end of WW2 simply because there was no German ship's to sell off. Vast numbers of UBoats had surrendered and some were sunk off the northern tip of Northern Ireland and some were sold for salvage. German surface ships were few on the ground, we, the Royal Navy having sunk most of them and what was left were used for experiments by ourselves and by other Allies. Perhaps the best known ship, the Prinz Eugen, the heavy cruiser escorting the Bismarck at the time of Hood's sinking in May 1941, which was detached by Bismarck to save the cruisers bacon when it was inevitable that she (Bismarck) could not survive the oncoming fire-fight with the British battleships, ended up in the Pacific (a long way from her Nazi home) and used in an atomic testing range. Her wreck still breaks water and can be viewed from the shore laying parallel with a remote Atoll.

Another infamous ship the Gneisenau, was so badly damaged and wrecked in her Nazi port by the RAF Boy's that she was never again used except as a block-ship! Our gallant 'crabfats' also resigned Tirpitz to her total demise.

So, have you decided yet ? How much is a dead German sailors life worth?

The government assessors didn't have the full and correct numbers of all German sailors killed during the very brief fire-fight period, but they knew for certain the crew-counts of all the German ships lost which totalled eleven. The crews of those 11 vessels totalled 4537, several of them small vessels. Once a cash figure was agreed, the next part of the question was to whom would that amount of money be shared out to, as prize money which would be the assailants, namely the British Grand Fleet. How many ships were amassed but not necessarily used in bringing down the Germans, driving them for good from the North Sea (although the Germans conducted several sorties after Jutland), which in those days, even on our maps, was called the German Sea. I won't ask you to guess this one, for I don't believe that any of you would come up with anywhere near to the correct answer. It was in fact 151 ships deployed at source with 121 actually involved in some way or other - mind-blowing stuff!

The answer I wanted was that each German life was calculated to be worth just £5.0.0d giving a total for the Grand Fleet of £22685.0.0d, a massive pile of money. Regrettably, we were not told about the number crunching processes but, as you will read below, in todays prices there was over £2M to be distributed. We of course know exactly how many of our men were lost, and how many were picked up as survivors by us or as POW's by the Germans. What we cannot calculate in the pro rata calculation is whether any of the sinking/salvage money went to the NOK of those deceased R.N., sailors who were lost in the 16 vessels sunk and 22 damaged, some badly, a total of 38 units in all, far greater than the German losses and almost unbelievable. So too were our personnel losses which totalled a staggering 6185 for just a few hours of open warfare, as against the 4537 lost by the Germans. One has to be very careful to qualify what the effect was upon the Germans when the British losses were made known to them, because it is very easy to see that in personnel/materiel terms, the Germans came out of the battle better off than we did by quite a large margin, and to many minds that signifies a defeat for the British. In the seven and a quarter odd hours of action, it was, and we cannot argue ourselves a victory or even a draw. What mattered, although it hurt the British and badly, was the aftermath of those seven and a quarter hours which could not have been foreseen in early June 1916, which quite literally brought the great Aryan nation to its knees almost begging for an immediate surrender:

Captured, Surrendered, Scuttled

Those losses are as follows:-

Lion 101 dead Princess of Wales 22 dead Queen Mary 1271 dead - 19 survivors

Tiger 25 dead Indefatigable 1019 dead Barham 27 dead

Malaya 60 dead Warspite 14 dead Dublin 3 dead

Southampton 35 dead Chester 36 dead Defender 1 dead

Turbulent 91 dead Nestor 6 dead Nomad 8 dead

Onslow 3 dead Petard 9 dead Marlborough 2 dead

Invincible 1022 dead Black Prince 860 dead Defiance 905 dead

Warrior 69 dead Calliope 9 dead Broke 48 dead

Acasta 6 dead Porpoise 2 dead Shark 87 dead

Spitfire 6 dead Caster 12 dead Nessus 7 dead

Obdurate 1 dead Tipperary 185 dead Ardent 79 dead

Fortune 67 dead (plus 18 injured and captured) Sparrowhawk 6 dead Onslaught 5 dead

Beneficent 9 dead Flirt 6 dead

Others, who DOW later, and for up to several weeks after the battle which could be from any of these ships listed, was a total 61 dead

TOTAL DEAD (Not including injured/captured/POW) = 6185 = Official Admiralty numbers

Jutland Losses

The following file is a letter informing the NoK (Next of Kin) of the death of Stoker Harry of HMS Indefatigable.

Stoker Harry

Followed by this.

The nominal list of deaths amongst the men are sadly much too long to produce here. May I suggest that if you have access to one, to consult the Navy List of January 1917 Corrected to 18th December 1916, pages 134a to 137b (and there are lots of them) "OFFICERS AND MEN KILLED IN ACTION" (RATINGS SECTION) or this website Naval History Net and this file Prize Money

The Battle of Jutland is so well known but with some gaps! Although it was indecisive it was so vicious that in its main-engagement-time of just FIVE AND A QUARTER HOURS plus a further TWO HOURS NIGHT ENGAGEMENT with our destroyers sinking a fleeing battleship, SEVEN AND A QUARTER HOURS IN ALL there was such terrible losses of men and materiel: (the German's themselves scuttled their badly damaged capital ship the Lutzow as they were doing their overnight flit rather than leaving it for the Royal Navy to enthuse over), in real terms with losses of 10,772 men, it meant that virtually 1486 men were slaughtered every hour of the battle.
Note, NOT ONE MEDAL WAS ISSUED, other than for gallantry and valour (but see the story of Jack Cornwell.) Utterley Inconceivable!

Although never stated as such, it must have been the shortest major sea battle in all history. The following text below sums it all up succinctly.

When Jellicoe left his appointment as the C-in-C he wrote this letter for all in the Grand Fleet to see.

Without medals and with such great losses, what reward did the Grand Fleet get out of the altercation? Well preciously little really! They got the usual sinking/destruction/salvaging of enemy ship prizes, and on a good day, a humble little submarine [for example] could sink a big ship whose wreck is recoverable for its scrap value, and each crew member were sitting pretty as a result. Alternatively, many ships, big and small could sink a lesser group of ships to share out a small sum of money, enough to take the girlfriend out for the night.

In this next file I will show you details of a well known battle which received a reasonable pay day namely Heligoland Bight.

Navy Agents, Prizes and Medals

In WW1 the payouts were complicated but as per a well broadcasted plan, fair and each group of men knew where they stood. I'll show you those tables in a minute.

In addition to a 'prize' for sinking an enemy ship, warship or co-opted ship, British sailors were given war bounties for simply being in a recognised war theatre for a given period, as well as war salvage bonus's when the spoils of war had been assessed and sold for hard cash. Some of those payments came when well into the 1920's, so there was a super-dooper payday due eventually even though often it was given piece meal.

What follows is a seamans record from WW1 at the the time of Jutland.

This section gives the necessary details re issue of medals and what they were for, and note that he was awarded THREE medals, the 1914-1915 Star, British War Medal and the Victory Medal. In addition to medals which sadly (and sickeningly) were always issued late and grudgingly by the Admiralty, men were given CHEVRONS to wear on their right sleeve cuff in recognition of their sea service between 1914-1918.

What are campaign medals? One would think an easy question to answer but not so!

It doesn't have authority but look at this Wikipedia definition.

1. A military campaign denotes the time during which a given military force conducts combat operations in a given area (often referred to as AO, area of operation). A military campaign may be executed by either a single Armed Service, or as a combined services campaign conducted by land, naval, air, cyber and space forces. My comment. Battle of Jutland qualifies!
2. The purpose of a military campaign is to achieve a particular desired resolution of a military conflict as its strategic goal. This is constrained by resources, geography and/or season. A campaign is measured relative to the technology used by the belligerents to achieve goals, and while in the pre-industrial Europe was understood to be that between the planting (late spring) and harvest times (late autumn), it has been shortened during the post-industrial period to a few weeks. However, due to the nature of campaign goals, usually campaigns last several months, or even a year as defined by Trevor N. Dupuy. My comment. Battle of Jutland qualifies because the 'campaign goal' was to destroy the German High Seas Fleet in one battle, the shorter the better.
3. A campaign is a phase of a war involving a series of operations related in time and space and aimed towards a single, specific, strategic objective or result in the war. A campaign may include a single battle, but more often it comprises a number of battles over a protracted period of time or a considerable distance, but within a single theatre of operations or delimited area. A campaign may last only a few weeks, but usually lasts several months or even a year. My comment. Battle of Jutland qualifies. Jutland was a single battle.
Campaign medals are those medals awarded to individuals who served in the First World War and who met the qualifications laid down for each campaign medal. In general, all those who saw service overseas were awarded a campaign medal. The qualifications for each campaign medal were laid down in Admiralty/War Office Orders.

Instituted in 1917 for service ashore in France and Flanders between 5 August and 22 November 1914. In 1919 a clasp bearing the above dates was authorised and given to those individuals who had actually been under fire between the prescribed dates.

Authorised in 1918, the 1914/15 Star was awarded to those individuals who saw service in France and Flanders from 23 November 1914 to 31 December 1915, and to those individuals who saw service in any other operational theatre from 5 August 1914 to 31 December 1915.

The British War Medal 1914-1920, authorised in 1919, was awarded to eligible service personnel and civilians alike. Qualification for the award varied slightly according to service. The basic requirement for army personnel and civilians was that they either entered a theatre of war, or rendered approved service overseas between 5 August 1914 and 11 November 1918. Service in Russia in 1919 and 1920 also qualified for the award.

The Victory Medal 1914-1919 was also authorised in 1919 and was awarded to all eligible personnel who served on the establishment of a unit in an operational theatre.

The Territorial Force War Medal 1914-1919 was awarded to members of the Territorial Force only. To qualify, the recipient had to have been a member of the Territorial Force on or prior to 30 September 1914, and to have served in an operational theatre outside of the United Kingdom between 5 August 1914 and 11 November 1918.

The Silver War Badge (SWB), sometimes erroneously called the Silver Wound Badge, was authorised in September 1916 and takes the form of a circular badge with the legend "For King and Empire-Services Rendered" surrounding the George V cypher. The badge was awarded to all of those military personnel who were discharged as a result of sickness or wounds contracted or received during the war, either at home or overseas.

In this picture above, you will see that this sailor did more than his fair share at sea throughout the whole war, being awarded each and every Chevron from 1914 to 1918, with the second line a little hard to read which says "May '19 - 1918 Chevron awarded, and 1914 & '15 Star". The following text tells you all about Chevrons:-

Sea Service Chevrons

In May 1918 the Secretary of the Admiralty announced the conditions for the award to members of the Royal Navy and the other marine services of chevrons for service at sea and overseas.
They will be awarded to denote services overseas, or at sea undertaken since August 4, 1914, and are to be worn in uniform.
Service overseas and at sea is defined as service at sea in sea-going ships of war, auxiliaries, in defensively armed merchant ships as guns’ crews, and those employed in minesweeping. Officers and men of the late R.N. Air Service who, although serving in the United Kingdom, were liable for service in the air for offensive or defensive purposes, may count such service as qualifying service. Service in kite balloons when embarked in ships will also count.
The date for the award of the first chevron will be August 5, 1914, in the case of those serving at sea or abroad on that date. In other cases the date on which the individual began or begins qualifying service as defined - for example, an individual who began qualifying service on December 31, 1915, is entitled to his first chevron on that date.

Additional chevrons are to be awarded as follows:-
(a) From January 1, 1915, to December 31, 1917, inclusive, on a calendar year basis, that is, one chevron and not more than one for each of the years 1915, 1916, and 1917. The individual must have an aggregate of three months' qualifying service in the calendar year to entitle him to the award for that year.

1914 Silver Chevron
The chevrons will be ¼ in. in width, the arms 1¼ in. long. They will be worn inverted on the right forearm. Chevrons for officers will be of silver or gold braid. The first chevron, if earned on or before December 31, 1914, will be silver; if earned on or after January 1, 1915, it will be gold, and all additional chevrons after the first will be gold. The silver chevron will be worn below the gold one. For ratings they will be of worsted embroidery of two colours - red and blue. The first chevron, if carried on or before December 31, 1914, will be red; if earned on or after January 1, 1915 it will be blue; and all additional chevrons after the first will be blue.

In the case of officers they are to be worn on the blue undress coat only.

The chevrons are a distinction to be worn on uniform to denote service at sea or overseas since the outbreak of war, and are not to be regarded as being in the nature of a reward. There will, therefore, be no posthumous award to fallen officers or men. The chevrons may be worn in plain clothes by officers and men who have left the Service, but who would, had they remained in the Service, have been entitled to wear them on uniform. In such cases, application for authority to wear the chevrons must be made.

War Badges Abolished in the Navy.
On 24 Nov 1922, since most medals for war service have now been issued, service chevrons, wound stripes, and silver war badges were no longer to be worn in uniform.

In 1919 our sailor was given a War Gratuity of £30-00, a good amount of money for a Leading Hand. Here is a part of the petition to HM The King to make an award of a Gratuity to all those who had taken part in WW1.

And whereas we are of opinion that Officers and Men of the Royal Navy, Royal Marines, Royal Naval Reserve, and Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve who served during the present War should be granted gratuities in respect of such service:

We beg leave humbly to recommend that Your Majesty may be graciously pleased, by Your Order in Council, to sanction the payment of gratuities to these officers and men as set forth in the enclosed Schedules.

The Lords Commissioners of Your Majesty's Treasury have signified Their concurrence in these proposals.

It manifested itself as:-

Gratuities to Seamen and Marines.

Gratuities on the following scales to be granted to Chief Petty officers, Petty Officers, Men and Boys of the Royal Navy, and Warrant Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers, Men and Boys of the Royal Marines, whether they belong to the permanent service or reserve or were entered for "Hostilities only."


	For the first year's service or part of a year if a year has not been served. *		Increment for each additional calendar month or final portion of a calendar month after a year's service, subject to a maximum of 48 such monthly increments.
	£	s
Boys	2	10	To those who have served at sea or overseas for any period during their qualifying war service.
Ordinary Seaman or Able Seaman	5	10
Leading Rates	6	10
Petty Officers	8	5	To those who have not served at sea or overseas
Chief Petty Officers	12	5	To those who have not served at sea or overseas

* Note.-No Gratuity to be paid to ratings who have rendered only six months' or less than six months' service within the prescribed war period without any service at sea or overseas.

Our man was a LEADING RATE. His £30.00, was made up as follows:-
Under the '£' (STERLING) COLUMN = £6.00
Under the 's' (SHILLINGS) COLUMN (right hand column) = 48 calendar months x 10 shillings (50p) = £24-00
TOTAL WAR GRATUITY = £30-OO

A Boy and a Chief Petty Officer with like for like service, would have got, respectively £26-00 and £36-00.

Now, let us compare that with what the officers got. War Gratuities to Permanent Officers of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines. War Gratuities to be granted to permanent Officers an the active lists of the Royal Navy and Royal Marines (excluding the R.N.R., and R.N.V.R.) for service during the war on the following scales:-


Relative Rank of Officer	For the first year's service (or for part of a year if a year has not been served).	Increment for each additional month after a year's service.
		Officers who have served at sea or overseas.	Officers have not served at sea or overseas.
	£	£	£	s
Admiral of the Fleet	720	3	1	10
Admiral	640
Vice-Admiral	370
Rear-Admiral	200
Commodore, 1st & 2nd Class.	140	2	1	0
Captain over 3 years' seniority	100	2	1	0
Commander and Captain under 3 years' seniority.	75	1	0	10
Lieutenant-Commander	60
Lieutenant	45
Sub-Lieutenant	40
Commissioned Warrant Officer	35
Warrant Officer	30
Midshipman	20
Paymaster Cadet	15

Officers who have served at sea or overseas for any period during the war to receive the higher rates of increment for the whole period of their war service after the first year, An Admiral of the Fleet would have received £864-00 and a Paymaster Cadet £63-00.

Top of the upper deck getting well over 2000% more than the top of the lower deck! Is that fair?

Now we come to another of my ready made pages, this time on PRIZE MONEY.

Our man received three whacks of prize money. The first line reads "Paid £15-00 Naval Prize Fund", the second read "Paid final share of Naval Prize Fund", and the last line reads "Paid supplementary Share of Naval Prize Fund". The Naval Prize Fund filled its coffer with captured enemy ships/submarines which could be sold for scrap or sold on to non-enemy non-combatants as sea going units. It was boosted to an unprecedented level when the surrendered German High Sea Fleet scuppered itself in Scapa Flow Scotland. All the ships were raised and sold for scrap or used in the Royal Navy as viable fighting units. First world war sailors did well out of the Fund, but read Distribution of Prize Money and Salvage Awards for a full understanding of the money paid and why.

Now a little known story about Portsmouth (in particular) but also extended on a very much smaller basis to other naval ports.

The 19th century can be viewed as follows.

* Ignores 1st Boer War which was a three months skirmish ten years previously in 1880.

The image also ignores all the small naval battles/feuds during pax years and wars/battles such as the Indian Mutiny, Opium Wars and the like. More importantly, I have left out a bizarre naval battle involving the Royal Navy (in an allied fleet during the Greek War of Independence, led by a British admiral, Edward Codrington) which was fought with most of the ships involved riding at anchor on the 20th October 1827, with the enemy, Islamic naval forces, utterly destroyed by the allies superior fire power. It was in the pre-steam days, and as such is recorded for history as the last battle involving only sailing ships, but since most were at anchor it is really a rather irrelevant fact! It was called the Battle of Navarino. Some of my older readers might remember a film called "The Guns of Navarone" about commando's destroying huge land- mounted German guns in 1943, which although both places are in Greece, they are many miles apart.

During the whole period depicted here, groups from the large population of Portsmouth' Jews (there is more than one large Jewish cemetery in the City) used to congregate outside the main dockyard gate of Portsmouth Dockyard (the Hard) - not the largest but the premier port - to offer loans with outlandishly high repayment terms to the families of sailors gathered there awaiting the arrival of their loved ones. Communications for most of this century were either bad, misleading or non-existent and many assembled on the Hard only to find that their loved ones were no more. The Jews targetted these people who were as poor as church mice, desperate and now known to be bereaved. It concerned the Admiralty and many were the times when the Jewish lenders would be dispersed by force only to reassemble in places like lower Queens Street and the square of the famous church on the Hard, St George's. However the Admiralty were powerless to control what happened outside of the dockyard wall/gates (except to contain rioters and would- be arsonists) , and since it had no programme of its own to address the poverty directly associated with death of its sailors, it in effect turned a blind-eye. In these times, pressed-men were released to their civilian occupation (more generally, hand-to-mouth existence) both between battles and wars and in all pax britannica periods; middle ranked and senior officers were put on half pay; some very senior officers (first class commodores upwards) might be lucky to get a pension but it was not an automatic reward; retained sailors living in hulks went for thirty to forty years without a pay rise, and only the standing warrant officers (gunner, boatswain and carpenter) continued in full employment, being ship-keepers in pax britannica times, retained their privileges (including rum issue) and were allowed to move their wife and children on board the vessel they were 'keeping'. Warrant officers were the only people in the navy with pensions at the end of their careers.

A very famous Gunner (two types of warrant officer for this rank - note, not rate - a basic warrant officer who wore three buttons on each of his fluted tunic cuffs on what for all intents and purposes was an officers uniform (four buttons), sword belt and sword, and after ten years minimum service a promotion, an increase of pay but not of privileges, when he added to his cuffs a quarter inch thick gold stripe one inch above his three buttons on both arms. Later on, if very lucky, he would change the ¼" stripe for a ½ " stripe to become a chief warrant officer. At this point he was either a commissioned warrant officer or a chief warrant officer, both a CWO, but his title very much depended upon his specialisation. For example, a Gunner became a 'Chief' but a telegraphist became a 'commissioned'. Both could go on to becoming lieutenants at which point the word "warrant" was no longer used.

I digress.

This very famous Gunner late on in the 19th century, got the ear of one Jackie Fisher, and subsequently many issues of grievance from the "middle deck" were part or fully settled. The warrant officers were given some meaningful measurers of autonomy which upset many in the wardroom who were forced to toe the line on all matters notwithstanding. One of the issues they raised was compensation for death whilst in action. Commissioned officers didn't have this, and certainly the gun-fodder down below didn't. The Admiralty faced a dilemma, which could not be resolved from the public purse. It was resolved by allowing the warrant officers to set up and run a fund which was called the "Chief and Warrant Officers' Retirement and Death Benefit Association". No other parts of the service had this double privilege, a pension and now a death benefit. To administrate the 'RADBA' which was a voluntary contribution from pay, accountability had to be seen functioning, but not by the Admiralty. The 'RADBA' was administered by committees set up in all naval ports, home and abroad of CWO's and WO's mixed, and audited by civilian auditors approved by the Admiralty in the UK. From there, the CWO/WO's were granted permission to have an approved Journal in which WO's of all kinds could following the fortunes of the 'RADBA'. It wasn't long before they started to express their views on the state of the navy from training to pay, and it became a bargaining weapon and compulsory reading by Their Lordships, much envied by commissioned officers who didn't have a mouthpiece. It also carried contentious stories which the admirals were not always pleased about. But it also brought new privileges to the WO rank which would not have occurred had it not being for their coveted "NAVAL WARRANT OFFICERS' JOURNAL". For example, commissioned officers could win medals but WO's couldn't, and so the WO's (middle deck) argued that officers (upper deck) were being treated in a better way than themselves which was at odd's for many of them, especially when the CWO's were doing the same job as the less senior officers. They got the King to approve of a new medal for which they would be eligible. However, the Board Admirals were getting fed-up with the progress being made by the WO's mess. and not long after Fisher became the First Sea Lord in 1904, they engineered a job for this warrant officer pally with Admiral Fisher in the ordnance department in Sydney NSW Dockyard when he stayed for four years. On his return to the UK he was promoted to the Chief Gunner rank and made president of the Chatham Depot WO's Mess. Not only was he out of the way, but he disliked his job and was said to be shocked at the lack of social skills of the mess members but at the graceless decorum of the wives of members, and for the first time, said he, witnessed why it was that the WO's and the Wardroom were not good bed-fellows, and one of the main reasons why promotion to the wardroom was painfully slow. Nevertheless, he continued 'banging the table' for improvements, all the while knowing it was a lost cause, since leopards cannot/ do not change their spots!

The Conspicuous Service Cross, first awarded in the second Boer War when eight such crosses were awarded. It was awarded to many WO's and midshipman plus others for service rendered throughout WW1 including during the battle of Jutland, but by that time, with a name change. Two thousand in all were won in WW1.

Conspicuous Service Cross

In October 1914, the first letter of the acronym was changed from a 'C' (Conspicuous) to a 'D' for (Distinguished), otherwise all the elements of the original CSC stayed the same in the DSC. It was a purely naval gallantry award in concept, but later on was expanded to include other recipients. All commissioned officers and warrant officers (male and female) were eligible for this gallantry award. It is good that we have this Journal archive which mentions this cross in full, for although it was extant for 14 years between 1901 and 1914, it is no where shown as an artefact for us to view. Had it not been for the Journal, the CSC could have been an entirely different cross to that of the DSC which we readily recognise today. We now know that both were identical in every way. The Letters E.R.I. on the CSC 1901-1910, stood for Edward Rex Imperator, namely King Edward VII who had just become the monarch after the 1901 death of Queen Victoria. On the next CSC at the death of Edward VII 1910-1914, GRI (see picture below) stood for George Rex Imperator (King George V). That use of Rex Imperator continued during the reigns of Edward VIII and George VI but only until the title lapsed in August 1947. Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, King George V, King Edward VIII until abdication, and for a period King George VI, were all Emperor's/Empress of India and used the word Imperator which mean Emperor. Victoria was Regina Imperatrix whilst all the Kings were
Rex Imperator. Females always used 'trix' at the end of a relevant root word, for example, in a will, men were executor and women were exectrix. The following shows pictures of George V's CSC/DSC with a bar on the ribbon denoting that the cross had been won twice. It shows the front of the cross known as the obverse (the back, in this case plain and blank) is called the reverse. Queen Elizabeth came to the throne in February 1952 on the death of her father George VI and has never used the word Imperatrix - she would have been a lovely Empress and in a very real way she is the Head of the Commonwealth, or should it have been the Empress of the Commonwealth - I think so anyway!

THE DISTINGUISHED SERVICE CROSS (Late Conspicuous Service Cross)
The Conspicuous Service Cross was instituted by King Edward in 1901 as a means of ‘recognizing meritorious or distinguished services before the enemy/ performed by warrant officers, acting warrant officers, or by subordinate officers of His Majesty’s Fleet. No person could be nominated unless his name had been mentioned in despatches, while the award of the decoration carried with it the right to use the letters C.S.C. In October 1914 the name of this decoration was altered to the ‘Distinguished Service Cross,’ and its award was extended to all Naval and Marine officers below the relative rank of Lieutenant-Commander, ‘for meritorious or dis-tinguished services which may not be sufficient to warrant the appointment of such officers to the Distinguished Service Order.’ The letters after a recipient’s name, too, were altered to D.S.C. while the proviso that a recipient must have been mentioned in despatches still held good. In the London Gazette of 22 December 1939 it was announced that the King had been pleased to approve that Commanders and Lieutenant-Commanders of the Royal Navy and officers of equivalent rank should also be eligible for the award of the Distinguished Service Cross. The decoration itself, which is suspended from its ribbon by a ring, is a plain silver cross pattee convexed with the reverse side plain. On the obverse it bears the cypher of the reigning Sovereign surmounted by the Crown. Bars are awarded for further services, as is the case with the D.S.O., and the same regulations are in force as to the wearing of the silver rose on the ribbon in undress uniform. Only eight ‘Conspicuous Service Crosses’ were awarded from the date of its institution in 1901 until the opening of the First World War, when it was renamed the ‘Distinguished’ Service Cross.

The D.S.C. is the only purely Naval decoration, as opposed to medals, and as such was awarded to the town of Dunkirk for the gallant behaviour of its inhabitants during the First World War. Officers of the Royal Air Force serving with the Fleet Air Arm are eligible for the D.S.C., as are officers of the Women’s Royal Naval Service for gallantry and distinguished conduct on shore during enemy action. Officers of the Merchant Navy were awarded the D.S.C. during the First World War for gallant services in action, and an Order in Council of 19 May 1931 legalized its grant to the Merchant Navy. The Conspicuous Gallantry and Distinguished Service Medals described later, are available in similar circumstances to men of the Merchant Navy.

The Journal took it upon itself to speak for the "middle" deck in a strong voice. For example, when wireless telegraphy was first mooted for mass fitting in the fleet, they wrote to the Admiralty thanking them for their wisdom and astuteness. Then, in a most audacious fashion, they wrote to the King on the death of his mother Queen Victoria and the King's private secretary, none other, wrote back to thank them. The wardroom got nowhere near to express their heartfelt sadness, that coming only from the Admiralty.

In the Grand Fleet at Jutland there would have been getting on for five hundred warrant officers, with battleships having 25 or so embarked. This picture was taken in approximately mid 1939, and is of the WO crew in HMS Hood, a battlecruiser.

Note all the buttons and flutes have gone, leaving WO's with thin stripes, and CWO's with thick stripe. The man at the front is a Royal Marine, as in the officer 3rd row down from top 3rd in on the left.

At Jutland, ONLY THE WO's widows (and/or family (NOK)) were financially compensated over and above what the Admiralty paid for the loss of their husbands, assuming of course that they had paid in to 'RADBA'.

The Admiralty were very fair, but not over generous, in looking after the dead of Jutland and of the living wounded, and the payments were infinitely better than most civilians received when they were left without a bread winner. . For 1916 typically, the widow of a CPO who was drowned, say, having five children (almost the norm in those days), would for herself receive a weekly pension of 9 shillings, 5 from the Royal Hospital Greenwich fund and 4s from Admiralty coffers plus 2s for each child, a total of £1.7.0d per week, which was above the poverty line so many people from late Victorian, through Edwardian and into early George V reign years had to survive on.

Typical Jutland death benefits for NOK for Ratings killed in action

This picture is more to the point, i.e. WW1 and is the total mess of eighteen WO's of HMS Renown c.1918 (Renown commissioned in late 1916), just four months after Jutland - note the four button jacket/tunic! Apart from the faces, nothing has changed at this point and so could easily be a picture of say, the Invincible. HMS Renown missed Jutland by a few months being commissioned in September 1916 as a brand new and much improved battlecruiser. Note the basic WO with fluted cuffs (far left) and the over ten years seniority far right, but no Chiefs in sight, the no buttons & half inch stripe only WO. The WO on the right belongs to the "Civil Branch" i.e., non-executive so has no ring/curl on the top of his stripe: he is probably a WO Paymaster. The WO (standing) over the left shoulder of the seated WO in a blue suit, belongs to the "Military Branch" i.e., executive (seaman, navigator, gunner, torpedo specialisations) and has a curl in his stripe. The two men at the front with moustaches are Royal Marine WO's. Four months earlier, there, 'but for the Grace of God went them' ! The builders and the naval architect of this new type of battlecruiser, didn't of course have time to take into account Beatty's words when he said to Ernie Chatfield, his Flag Captain in the Lion "there's something wrong with our bloody ships" when within half an hour of Battle of Jutland commencing the two battlecruisers Indefatigable and the Queen Mary blew-up. Renown, although deployed from late 1916 onwards, saw no real action in WW1. She most certainly got about in WW2, punching her weight and earning her keep, involved in lots of fractious incidents and gunnery punch-up's, but equally, as the pressure of WW2 combat reduced, she got some of the prize PR jobs. She was never put to the test and so we will never know whether our yards had produced a fit for purpose battlecruiser as wished for by Earl Beatty. When I joined the navy in 1953 at Shotley, I entered my career in BEATTY TWO Mess in the Annexe, and have ever held the wonderment of the Jutland days, and Beatty's career thereafter firstly as the C-in-C Grand Fleet then the First Sea Lord. Today, we would give our spare arm to meet such men as these (Jellicoe and Beatty et al) , and whilst clearly we can't, we can nevertheless and for all times, remember and respect them. I have done many researches, and this is the closest I have got to a contemporary picture of WWI battlecruiser WO's. May they all, and always, RIP.

This was a typical page in their Journal which is a very large archive today. Note the last column details concerning deaths.

The ranks: R = Retired. CG = Commissioned Gunner. CB = Commissioned Boatswain. B = Boatswain

I have a couple of yearly collections which are quite cumbersome and weighty documents, but I have access to them all. Thousands of pages of intriguing naval history known only to the WO's mess and the Admiralty but on subjects which covered the whole of the Royal Navy.

The CWO/WO Retirement and Death Benefit Association paid out for many WO's during WW2 with many of them coming from the Hood itself. It paid up on one's death, however and whenever, or if lucky, paid handsome annual pension when others in the naval service were destitute.