ONE hundred years ago, on May 31 to June 1916, the most significant sea battle of the First World War took place off Jutland, in the North Sea.
The Grand Fleet of the British Empire faced the mighty German High Seas Fleet, as lines of battleships, battle cruisers, and dozens of smaller vessels engaged each other in combat For Bridport, the loss of life in this battle was greater than in any other single event of the war.
Ten gallant sailors were killed, seven of them on two battle cruisers which exploded in colossal towers of smoke and flame as they were pierced by German shells.
On HMS Queen Mary, one of the most modern ships in the Navy at the time, George Bartlett, William Lee, Archie Russell, Edgar Scadden, and Albert Tattershall all perished in an instant.
On HMS Invincible, Charles Gale and Robert Norman were lost.
And on HMS Black Prince, a cruiser which, in the melee of battle suddenly found itself completely outgunned by an entire line of German battleships, William Abbott, Ernest Copp and Albert Tiltman made the ultimate sacrifice.
More than 8,500 were killed during the 36 hours of the battle; of these six thousand were British.
The battle was indecisive; both the British and Germans felt they had come off best. But as a result of the mauling they received at Jutland, the German High Seas Fleet never again ventured out into battle, and the war at sea changed course to one of deadly submarine warfare.
Hard on the heels of Jutland, and barely a week later, another three Bridport sailors lost their lives when HMS Hampshire was lost just west of the Orkney Islands on June 5, 1916.
DEVASTATION: In the battle, on May 31, 1916, 6,784 British men and 3,039 German men lost their lives
On board was Lord Kitchener, on a mission to Russia. William Gale, John Lewis and Ernest Turner were among the 643 men drowned; a mere dozen were rescued from the cold and stormy seas and forbidding cliffs of Orkney.
The surnames of these gallant men ring like a roll call of Bridport families, and we owe them an enormous debt for their gallantry and for being prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice for us.
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