"FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH"

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2920, 4 November 1916, Page 2

"FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH"

The Jack Cornwall Fund, ,to which the school children of Britain recentlj contributed so. splendidly, was initiated in memory of; a boy who died of wounds received in tho Battle of Jutland. -'When one reflects on the tremendous importance of the numberless great events of naval strategy, tactics, gunnery, the loss of mighty ships, thousands of gallant and highly-trained men, dealt with in tho dispatch, one sees," says .the "Speotator, "the significance which Sir David Beatty must have found in tho example of Jack Cornwall when he decided to make room for it in his dispatch. If tho boy's patient self-sacrifice thus stirred the heart of a 6eainan.who is compelled by his profession to assume bravery to the death as a natural course, it is more likely still to appeal to laymen who have not been trained ,to accept such a noble code of devotion. Jack Cornwell was only sixteen and a half years old. He had been nine months at a training school at Dartmouth, and a month beforo tho battle he went to sea for the first time in the Chester. He was at au extremely exposed post in tho ship, and when early in the fight a 6hell burst over the gun to which he was attached, ho was mortally wounded. With the gun's crew lying dead and wounded, around him, lie stood at his post waiting for orders until the battle was over. He. thought ho' might still bo of some use. Sir David Beatty's instinct was right in singling out this act, because, by mentioning it, he has enshrined in a dispatch that will 1 bo read to the end of time,, an example and an inspiration not ouly for the Naval Service, but for _ every British boy and girl. .'The captain of the Chester wrote to Cornwell's mother: —"I know you would wish to hear of the splendid fortitude and courage shown by your boy. His devotion to duty was an example for all of us. Tho wounds which resulted iii his death within a short time were received in the first few minutes of tho action. He remained steady at his most exposed post at the gun, waiting for orders. His gun would not boar on the enemy; all but two of tho crew wero killed or wounded, and ho was the only one who was in such an exposed position. But. ho felt he might be needed, as indeed ho might have' been; so ho stayed there, standing and waiting, under heavy fire, with just his 'own brave heart and Gotl's help to support him. _ I camiofc express, to you my admiration of tho son you have lost from this world. I liopo to place in the bovs mess a plate with his name on and the date, and the words, 'Faithful unto death. I hope some day you may be a bio to come and sco it here."