KINGSBRIDGE residents gathered in the blazing sunshine to remember those lost in the Battle of Jutland and a medal was returned to a family.

Around thirty members of the public turned out today, May 31, 100 years to the day that the battle began in 1916, to hear John Peacock of the Royal British Legion give a little history of the battle, which ended the next day, June 1, by which time it had claimed more than 8,500 lives on both sides.

He then handed over to the Rev Jackie Taylor of St Edmund’s Church, Kingsbridge, to lead the memorial service and Leon Locke of the Royal British Legion laid the wreath before the Last Post was played by a member of the Kingsbridge Silver Band.

Four Kingsbridge sailors lost their lives during the engagement, Horace Frederick Camp was 23, Percival Charles Ferris was 32, John Langley Ferris was 29 and George Lewis Tucker was 21.

Horace Camp was a Cook’s Mate on HMS Lion, Percival Ferris was an Able Seaman on board the HMS Defence and his brother John Langley Ferris was an Able Seaman on HMS Indefatigable.

George Lewis Tucker was Stoker 1st Class, also on board the HMS Indefatigable. George’s family was being traced by Saltash resident Barry Marsh. Barry attended the memorial service on Tuesday where he met with June Tucker, a descendant of George’s brother, and handed over the medal to her. They went for coffee to go through Barry’s research of her family tree.

Michael Ellis of West Alvington also attended the service with a framed photo of his great-uncle, Leading Seaman John Henry Jarvis, who was also killed in the Battle of Jutland. He was born and lived in South Hush and was on board HMS Indefatigable when he died.

Shells from the German battlecruiser Von der Tann caused an explosion ripping a hole in the hull of HMS Indefatigable, and a second explosion hurled large pieces of the ship 60 metres into the air in the first minutes of the battle on May 31. Only two of the crew of 1,019 survived.

Michael said: ‘I remember my nan telling me that he was hoped he wouldn’t be sent to the Navy as he hated the sea and he ended up as a Leading Seaman’.

The largest and most costly fleet engagement of the First World War, both the British and the German Navies claimed victory at the Battle of Jutland. The British lost more ships and almost three times as many sailors, but the German fleet never again engaged the full British Navy and focussed instead on submarine warfare.

The Kingsbridge Branch of the Royal British Legion are planning a remembrance service later in the summer to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the Battle of the Somme, which raged from July 1 to November 18, 1916, killing or wounding more than one million men.