Rating restores ‘lost’ grave (Jut)land of my fathers ROYAL Navy personnel attended a ceremony of remembrance at the grave of a soldier recently rediscovered by a senior rate. WO1 Darren ‘Fruity’ Paskins, 46, who lives in Torpoint and works at Britannia Royal Naval College, found the grave while camping with his dog Ralf at Maker Heights on the Rame Peninsula in Cornwall. He originally spotted the grave on a map and set out to find it, fighting through brambles and bracken to eventually come across the stone marking the last resting place of the soldier who died in 1790. Having sought permission to restore the area, WO1 Paskins, who is BRNC’s Ceremonial Training Officer, spent much of his spare time clearing the area of vegetation and once the grave was restored organised the small service of remembrance. The service, conducted by the Reverend Keith Robus, Royal Navy Chaplain, included Officer Cadets from BRNC and trainee sailors from HMS Raleigh, along with Major Charlie King of the Rifles, children from Fourlanesend School and local residents. WO1 Paskins said: “I was overwhelmed by the number of people who attended the service to show their respect for a soldier who died so long ago protecting our country. “There is a long-lasting bond of mutual respect between military personnel, which is something we teach during initial Naval training, and I thought
Cash plea to restore sketch
HISTORIANS in Portsmouth have launched a £25,000 ‘crowdfunding’ campaign to restore a sketch of one of the Navy’s most famous WW1 heroes. Mortally-wounded Jack Cornwell, pictured below, earned the VC for stoically standing at his post aboard HMS Cheshire in the maelstrom of the Battle of Jutland in May 1916. The 16-year-old’s actions made him a national hero and he was immor talised on canvas by artist Frank Salisbury – the painting hangs at HMS Raleigh as a memorial to Cornwell and to inspire today’s ratings. The National Museum of the Royal Navy holds Salisbury’s charcoal sketch which served as the basis for the painting and intends the artwork to form the centrepiece of its Jutland centenary exhibition which opens in May. It needs £25,000 to restore the sketch and is calling on the public to make small donations – ‘crowdfunding’ – to help. Head of Heritage Development at the National Museum of the Royal Navy Nick Hewitt said: “In 1916, Jack’s actions captured the hearts of the nation and now 100 years on, we want to do the same.” After the Battle of Jutland, children each donated a penny of their pocket money to contribute to The Jack Cornwell Memorial Fund. The fund was established to finance a ward for disabled sailors in the Star and Garter Home at Richmond. It was possibly one of the first crowdfunding campaigns. An impressive amount of £18,000 was raised, which, based on an historic inflation calculator, is equivalent to £1,653,224.45 today. Visit http://igg.me/at/ jackcornwell 24 : DECEMBER 2015
l WO1 Paskins, with dog Ralf, with fellow Servicemen at the grave Picture: Craig Keating
it was important for us all to remember him. “Details on the soldier are scant. The stone has been worn away by vegetation over the years, but I managed to make out he was called James, he was a Grenadier and he died of drowning in 1790. “A lady who attended the service said she believed he was called James Ashton and I hope to confirm that and find out more about him by accessing the pay records for the regiment at the National Archives in Kew. “I’ve an interest in military history and I’ve found out he would have been in the Royal Fusiliers, a member of the 7th Regiment Of Foot, and he would have been defending the cannon stationed here to combat the risk of invasion from the French and Spanish who were allied
with America during the War of Independence.” The position where the grave lies is known as a redoubt. It was abandoned in 1815 as better defences were built across the Rame Peninsula. Maker continued to play its part in the defence of Plymouth and more specifically the Naval Base as recently as WW2. A heavy anti-aircraft battery was built in the late 1930s and altered in the 40s. WO1 Paskins’s next project will be to restore the WW2 gun emplacements. American troops also mustered on the Rame Peninsula in preparation for the D-Day landings. Today Maker Heights is preserved for the community by the Rame Peninsula Conservation Trust.
VC hero’s memorial unveiled
THE largest collection of artefacts, photographs and personal testimonies ever assembled will commemorate the centenary of the Royal Navy’s biggest 20th-Century battle Shrapnel, shell-hole-speared pieces of bulkhead, battle ensigns stained by smoke and cordite, an account by the Queen’s father – and future George VI – a rivet removed by surgeons from a wounded gunner and the Victoria Cross won by a Royal Marine whose last action saved battlecruiser HMS Lion – and 1,000 souls aboard – and a gun from a German warship are among more than 100 items connected with the clash off the Danish coast to go on display in Portsmouth. On May 31 and June 1 1916, 150 British and 100 German warships fought for supremacy in the North Sea. When the battle was over, 25 warships were on the seabed and more than 8,500 sailors were dead – more than two thirds of them British. The 100th anniversary of the battle will be the Royal Navy’s principal event as part of WW1 centenary commemorations with events in the Orkneys – the fleet’s principal base in both world wars – over the wrecks in the North Sea, in Belfast where Jutland veteran cruiser HMS Caroline will be opened as a museum, and at the Naval memorials in Plymouth, Chatham and Portsmouth. And at the National Museum of the Royal Navy in Portsmouth, the wooden boathouse which housed the Mary Rose Museum before it moved to the Victory arena will be transformed to house the exhibition: 36 hours: Jutland 1916, The Battle That Won The War. The exhibition, which will run until the end of 2018, will be a mix of multimedia ‘set pieces’ which will attempt to give visitors an idea of what it was like to be at Jutland, as well as more traditional displays featuring artefacts, first-hand accounts, photographs, diaries. “There are far more relics and artefacts from Jutland than we suspected, particularly in private
collections. A lot of sailors kept splinters from shells as mementoes,” said Nick Hewitt, who’s overseeing the exhibition. He and his team have “pulled out all the stops” to trawl public and private archives, whittling the exhibition down to around 100 key objects, such as a 6in figure of Admiral Beatty, the charismatic commander of the battle-cruisers at Jutland, produced by ship’s carpenters (pictured inset) and loaned by the IWM, which is working hand-inhand with the naval museum. Even more touching is a dust-lined wooden box found in the IWM stores, labelled ‘steel from HMS Lion’ – Beatty’s flagship. It turned out to be armour plate from Q Turret, blown up in the battle, preserved in memory of its crew – all killed, including Major Francis Harvey. Mortally-wounded, the Royal Marine gave orders to flood the magazine which fed the turret with 13.5in shells. In doing so he ensured the fire raging in the smashed turret did not reach the bowels of Lion and blow the ship apart – unlike HMS Queen Mary, Invincible and Indefatigable. Harvey received a posthumous VC for his self-sacrifice – and presence of mind – a medal which will form part of the ‘Legacy of Jutland’ display. “People will never have seen such a collection of Jutland items before – and possibly never will again,” said Mr Hewitt. “Jutland is the Royal Navy’s defining moment in the Great War – and perhaps the largest sea battle in history. It’s the only event in the national WW1 centenary programme which is wholly naval in character.” Besides the main exhibition in Portsmouth, there will be displays at the Explosion museum in Gosport – focusing on shells and gunnery at Jutland – and a Short seaplane at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton flown by Frederick Rutland (‘Rutland of Jutland’), who scouted for enemy warships in the opening minutes of the clash.
A TEENAGE sailor, whose bravery during the WW1 Zeebrugge Raid earned him a Victoria Cross, has been honoured with a statue.
AB Albert McKenzie, 19, took part in a mission to block German u-boats in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge in 1918. He was one of the few among his landing party who survived the raid on April 23 and the first London sailor to collect the VC from King George V. His statue stands off Tower Bridge Road in Bermondsey, and was unveiled on his birthday in front of a large crowd, including a guard of honour from HMS Collingwood and former First Sea Lord, Lord West of Spithead. HMS Belfast, moored on the Thames, fired a salute. A stone’s throw from his childhood home, the memorial sits atop a concrete plinth made from a section of the Zeebrugge harbour wall. The hero’s great-nephew Colin McKenzie said: “It’s is such a huge honour for Albert to be recognised in this way. “We’ve always known about Albert. We’ve been brought up with the stories about him, but to share that with a much wider audience in this way, is almost overwhelming.” Bermondsey resident Paul Keefe started a fundraising campaign for a permanent tribute to McKenzie five years ago after discovering he wasn’t recognised by any other
memorial, as reported in Navy News at the time. AB McKenzie was onboard HMS Vindictive when it entered the Bruges-Zeebrugge canal shortly after midnight on St George’s Day in 1918. The British had planned to sink three old warships, blocking the canal entrance, while detonating two old submarines to damage the port of Zeebrugge. The idea was to prevent German submarines from leaving the port and attacking the Allies. An infavourable wind blew Vindictive’s smoke-screen away and German gunners inflicted heavy casualties. AB McKenzie, armed with a Lewis gun and 400 rounds of ammunition, followed his officer onto the harbour wall to fight the
German forces. By the time he was ordered to withdraw, his gun had been blown out of his hands. He fought his way back to safety using a pistol, bayonet and his wit. McKenzie caught influenza while recovering from his wounds and died just days before the war ended.
Pictures: POA(Phot) Owen Cooban
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