Jack Cornwell John Travers Cornwell VC ( 8 January 1900 – 2 June 1916 ) , commonly known as Jack Cornwell or as " Boy Cornwell " , is remembered for his gallantry at the Battle of Jutland . At the age of only 16 , he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross , the highest and most prestigious award for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to British and Commonwealth forces . Cornwell is the third - youngest recipient of the VC after Andrew Fitzgibbon and Thomas Flinn . Life . John " Jack " Travers Cornwell was born as a third child into a working - class family at Clyde Place , Leyton , Essex ( now in Greater London ) . His parents were Eli and Lily Cornwell . The family later moved to Alverstone Road , East Ham . He joined the Boy Scouts but left Walton Road School at the age of 14 . At the outbreak of the First World War , ex - soldier Eli Cornwell volunteered for service and was fighting in France under Lord Kitchener . The older brother Arthur also served in an infantry regiment in Flanders . In October 1915 , Jack Cornwell gave up his job as a delivery boy and enlisted in the Royal Navy , without his father ' s permission . He had references from his headmaster and employer . He carried out his basic training at HMS Vivid Keyham Naval Barracks at Plymouth and received further training as a Sight Setter or Gun Layer and became Boy Seaman First Class . On the Easter Monday of 1916 , Cornwell left for Rosyth , Scotland to join his assignment in the navy . He was assigned to HMS " Chester " . Battle of Jutland . On 31 May 1916 , " Chester " was scouting ahead of the 3rd Battlecruiser Squadron at the Battle of Jutland when the ship turned to investigate gunfire in the distance . At 17 : 30 hours , the " Chester " soon came under intense fire from four " Kaiserliche Marine " cruisers each her own size which had suddenly emerged from the haze and increasing funnel smoke of the battlefield . The shielded 5 . 5 - inch gun mounting where Cornwell was serving as a sight - setter was affected by at least four nearby hits . The " Chester ' s " gun mountings were open backed shields and did not reach the deck . Splinters were thus able to pass under them or enter the open back when shells exploded nearby or behind . All of the gun ' s crew were killed except Cornwell who , although severely wounded , managed to stand back up , and despite the entire gun crew around him dead or wounded , he remained standing at his post for more than 15 minutes until " Chester " retired from the action with only one main gun still working . " Chester " had received a total of 18 hits , but partial hull armour meant the interior of the ship suffered little serious damage and the ship was never in peril . The situation on deck , however , was dire . Many of the gun crews had lost lower limbs due to splinters passing under the gun shields . British ships report passing the " Chester " to cheers from limbless wounded gun crew laid out on her deck and smoking cigarettes , only to hear that the same crewmen had died a few hours later from blood loss and shock . After the action , ship medics arrived on deck to find Cornwell the sole survivor at his gun , shards of steel penetrating his chest , looking at the gun sight s and still waiting for orders . Being incapable of further action , " Chester " was ordered to the port of Immingham . There Cornwell was transferred to Grimsby General Hospital , although he was clearly dying . He died on the morning of 2 June 1916 before his mother could arrive at the hospital . Victoria Cross . Three months later , Captain Robert Lawson of " Chester " described the events to the British Admiralty . Though at first reluctant , the Admiralty eventually decided to recommend Cornwell for a posthumous Victoria Cross and King George V endorsed it . The recommendation for citation from Admiral David Beatty , reads : " the instance of devotion to duty by Boy ( 1st Class ) John Travers Cornwell who was mortally wounded early in the action , but nevertheless remained standing alone at a most exposed post , quietly awaiting orders till the end of the action , with the gun ' s crew dead and wounded around him . He was under 16½ years old . I regret that he has since died , but I recommend his case for special recognition in justice to his memory and as an acknowledgement of the high example set by him . " Jack Cornwell was initially buried in a common grave ( Square 126 Grave 323 ) in Manor Park Cemetery , London , but his body was exhumed on 29 July 1916 and he was reburied with full military honours also in Manor Park Cemetery Square 55 Grave 13 . Jack Cornwell ' s father Eli , who died on 25 October 1916 from bronchitis during home service with the Royal Defence Corps , was buried in the same grave on 31 October 1916 . The epitaph to Jack Cornwell on his grave monument reads , " It is not wealth or ancestry but honourable conduct and a noble disposition that maketh men great . " The award of the Victoria Cross appeared in the London Gazette on Friday 15 September 1916 ; the citation read The KING has been graciously pleased to approve the grant of the Victoria Cross to Boy , First Class , John Travers Cornwell , O . N . J . 42563 ( died 2 June 1916 ) , for the conspicuous act of bravery specified below . Mortally wounded early in the action , Boy , First Class , John Travers Cornwell remained standing alone at a most exposed post , quietly awaiting orders , until the end of the action , with the gun ' s crew dead and wounded all round him . His age was under sixteen and a half years . On 16 November 1916 , Cornwell ' s mother received the Victoria Cross from King George V at Buckingham Palace . Court painter Frank O . Salisbury made a portrait of Cornwell , using his brother Ernest as a model , depicting him standing in his post . " Boy Cornwell Memorial Fund " was also established . After that , the rest of the family was effectively forgotten . After Eli Cornwell ' s death on 25 October 1916 , his stepbrother Arthur Frederick Cornwell was killed in action in France on 29 August 1918 . Impoverished Alice Cornwell died at Stepney on 31 October 1919 at 745 Commercial Road in rooms she was forced to take when her son ' s memorial fund refused financial aid at the age of 48 . The two of her children remaining at home were granted £60 a year in a pension from the fund after Alice ' s death , but this proved insufficient and they both emigrated to Canada in the early 1920s . Jack Cornwell ' s elder half - sister , also named Alice , loaned Jack ' s Victoria Cross to the Imperial War Museum on 27 November 1968 . Salisbury ' s portrait of Cornwell hangs in the Anglican church within the Royal Navy ' s Initial Training Establishment HMS Raleigh , perhaps selected as an appropriate place also because the ship ' s Chaplain , The Rev . Cyril Ambrose Walton , was also killed during the action . Remembrance . The original furore caused by his very public re - burial led to over 7 million of the Empire ' s children donating to his fund . Amongst other causes the Jack Cornwell Ward for disabled sailors was inaugurated at The Star & Garter Hospital , Richmond . Sir Robert Baden - Powell , leader of the Scout movement , created a Cornwell Medal . The Cornwell Scout Badge , struck in his honour , is awarded by Scouting organizations throughout the Commonwealth . It is awarded to youth members in respect of pre - eminently high character and devotion to duty , together with great courage and endurance . Camp Cornwell , established in 1925 as the headquarters for Western Australian Sea Scouts is situated at Pelican Point on the Swan River near Perth . A " Jack Cornwell Street " and a block of council flats nearby called " John Cornwell VC House " were named in his honour in Manor Park , Newham in the Little Ilford area ( London E12 ) , and there is also a pub on that road named The Victoria Cross to commemorate his achievement of the medal . Mount Cornwell in the Kananaskis Range of the Canadian Rockies was named in his honour in 1918 . A group of memorial cottages in Hornchurch , Essex bear his name . The 5 . 5 - inch gun on which he served is still displayed in the Imperial War Museum , London . In 2006 it was announced that Jack Cornwell VC would feature in a series of Royal Mail postage stamps marking the 150th anniversary of the Victoria Cross . Jack Cornwell is also remembered by Sea Cadets , Army Cadets and Air Cadets who all have a unit based in the UKs first and only Tri Service Cadet building named ' The Cornwell VC Cadet Centre ' on Vicarage Lane in East Ham . Newham ( Cornwell VC ) Sea Cadets have been honoured with ' J T Cornwell VC ' on their cap ribbon ( Cap Tally ) instead of the customary TS ( training ship ) . They are the only Sea Cadet Unit in the UK to have this honour . Since 2003 , the Cadets have been planning to commemorate him by renaming an east London school in Leyton after him . In Cornwell ' s time the school was known as Farmer Road School ; it is currently named George Mitchell School after another former pupil , George Allan Mitchell , who won a VC in Italy during World War II . Cornwell Close , on Grimsby ' s Nunsthorpe Estate and Cornwell Court in Haslemere Road , Portsmouth are named after him . He is also remembered by Royal Navy Combined Cadet Force divisions , such as the RN CCF section at Whitgift School , Croydon , which is named the " Cornwell " division in his honour .