DARTMOUTH Museum is marking the Battle of Jutland with a special centenary exhibition.

It will open on Tuesday, May 31 – exactly 100 years ago since the famous naval battle took place off the Danish coast of Jutland.

The display will feature a chart of the area and a number of models of British ships that took part in the battle. It is also hoped to give the names of Dartmothians who served in those ships.

Museum chairman David Lingard said: ‘For the one and only time in the First World War, the British and German fleets met in a full encounter.

‘The Royal Navy was well superior in the number of ships and training and needed to ensure that the Germans could not influence events in the North Sea or the English Channel.

‘Conversely, the German Navy had fine ships and excellent equipment and needed to lift the very effective blockade which was strangling the civilian population. They also needed control of the North Sea and particularly the shipping routes across the Channel to cut off British reinforcements into France.

‘The British Commander-in Chief, Admiral Sir John Jellicoe was, in Churchill’s words, “the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon”. He didn’t. Though the British losses were heavier – 14 ships and 6,094 lives lost against 11 ships and 2,551 German deaths – the Kaiser’s navy under Admiral Scheer never again emerged from their harbours in any strength until they surrendered at the end of the war.’

Both the Jutland displays and that commemorating the Battle of the Somme, just a month later, will be dedicated to the memory of the late Christine Brenchley, the museum’s energetic education officer who died suddenly in April.

Christine had been had been tracking the progress of the First World War with displays in the museum since August 2014. She had already done work on these two major battles.

A generous donation has been given to the museum by Christine’s husband Michael ‘in recognition of the many happy hours she spent in the museum’.