Portrait postcard of Admiral Sir John Jellicoe of the Royal Navy. Appointed Commander of the British Home Fleets on August 2, 1914, Jellicoe was criticized for his leadership of the British fleet during the May 31, 1916 Battle of Jutland in which he failed to decisively defeat the German High Seas Fleet. He was made First Sea Lord later that year. The card was postmarked from Glasgow, Scotland, on January 7, 1915.
Admiral Sir John Jellicoe
"During the night the British heavy ships were not attacked, but the Fourth, Eleventh and Twelfth Flotillas, under Commodore Hawksley and Captains Charles J. Wintour and Anselan J. B. Sterling, delivered a series of very gallant and successful attacks on the enemy, causing him heavy losses.It was during these attacks that severe losses in the Fourth Flotilla occurred, including that of Tipperary, with the gallant leader of the Flotilla, Captain Wintour. He had brought his flotilla to a high pitch of perfection, and although suffering severely from the fire of the enemy, a heavy toll of enemy vessels was taken, and many gallant actions were performed by the flotilla. . . .At daylight, June 1st [1916], the battle fleet, being then to the southward and westward of the Horn Reef, turned to the northward in search of enemy vessels and for the purpose of collecting our own cruisers and torpedo-boat destroyers . . . I was reluctantly compelled to the conclusion that the High Sea Fleet had returned to port."
Excerpt from the June 24, 1916 official report of Admiral John Jellicoe to the British Admiralty on the May 31st Battle of Jutland between the British Grand Fleet and German High Sea Fleet. Although battle squadrons had first exchanged fire at 3:48 PM on the 31st, the battle fleets were not engaged until 6:00 PM. Dusk and smoke concealed ships on both sides, but allowed the smaller German fleet to slip away and return to port, dashing Jellicoe's hopes to re-engage on June 1. Flotillas of destroyers used their small-caliber guns and torpedoes to damage the fleeing Germans through the night, but at the cost of several destroyers including Tipperary.
The Great Events of the Great War in Seven Volumes by Charles F. Horne, Vol. IV, 1916, pp. 176-177, 178, copyright © 1920 by The National Alumnia, publisher: The National Alumni, publication date: 1920
1916-06-01, 1916, June, Jellicoe
