Battle of Jutland

Captain Cuthbert Coppinger DSC RN the commanding officer of HMS King Alfred, the RNVR training station, in the middle of the front row with his dog training staff and trainees in 1945

I and three others lived in a cottage in Twyford Hampshire for our last year at Southampton University in 1969. In the other half of the sprawling brick and flint building lived Captain Cuthbert Coppinger RN Retd.

Captain Coppinger told us he had been at the Battle of Jutland (31^st May 1916). After the Great War he attended a reconstruction of the battle using German records. He asked a moderator ‘What is that ship over there on its own in the German Fleet?’ The moderator said ‘HMS Canterbury’. ‘Good Lord,’ said Captain Coppinger, ‘I was the navigating officer on HMS Canterbury’.

Light cruiser HMS Canterbury that fought at Jutland on 31st May 1916. Lieutenant Cuthbert Coppinger RN was awarded the DSC for his conduct as navigating officer of the ship during the battle

It was a good story. What Captain Coppinger did not tell us was that he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his conduct at Jutland as the navigating officer of the ship that led one of Admiral Hood’s advance light cruiser squadrons.

Part of the crew of HMS Canterbury in 1916: Lieutenant Cuthbert Coppinger DSC RN is not obviously in the photograph

The citation stated that the award of the DSC was for ‘navigating the ship in the coolest manner from a very exposed position under extremely heavy fire’.

In the 1930s Captain Coppinger was the Senior Royal Navy Officer on the North China Station on HMS Capetown. From this service he was awarded the French Order of Maritime Merit for the rescue of survivors of the steamer ‘Yolande’ wrecked on the coast of Shantung on 6^th March 1938.

Battleship HMS Malaya commanded by Captain Cuthbert Coppinger RN in 1941

During the Second World War Captain Coppinger commanded HMS Malaya, the Queen Elizabeth class battleship that took a considerable hammering at Jutland as one of Admiral Evan-Thomas’s Fifth Battle Squadron.

At the end of the Second World War Captain Coppinger was the last commanding officer of HMS King Alfred the training station for RNVR officers, Brighton Swimming Baths in peaceful times.

Captain Coppinger died a few years after we had known him at Twyford. He had a voice like a foghorn and was a committed Catholic. His booming voice could be heard across the garden addressing a pair of questing Jehovah’s Witnesses ‘And do you go to church like we do?’

Map 32 from the Official Account of Naval Operations in the Great War Volume III showing the position at 6.26pm on 31st May 1916 at the height of the middle phase of the Battle of Jutland. HMS Canterbury is in the bottom right corner with the German Battle Line turning towards her

Were there any Aussies at the Battle of Jutland on 31^st May 1916? There should have been a battle cruiser’s crew of Aussies. HMAS Australia was part of Second Battle Cruiser Squadron based at Rosyth. Unfortunately on 24^th April 1917 HMAS Australia was in collision in dense fog with HMS New Zealand in much the same area as the Battle of Jutland was to take place a month later, putting Australia in ‘dockyard hands’ for two months.

British Armoured Cruiser HMS Defence lost at the Battle of Jutland 31st May 1916

There were however three Australians on the armoured cruiser HMS Defence, the flag ship of First Cruiser Squadron; Sub Lieutenant George Paterson, RAN, Midshipman Joseph Mack, RAN and Stoker 2^nd Class Mortimer Froude.

The German naval authorities refused to include armoured cruisers in the High Seas Fleet line of battle on the basis that they were insufficiently gunned and armoured.

Jutland showed how right they were. From Rear-Admiral Sir Robert Arbuthnot’s First Cruiser Squadron three of the four ships were sunk at Jutland: the flagship HMS Defence, HMS Warrior and HMS Black Prince, with few survivors.

All three Aussies on HMS Defence were lost.

In addition a Roman Catholic Padre Patrick Gibbons was attached to HMS Indomitable for the battle and Gunner (Warrant Officer) John Gill served on the battleship HMS Benbow, flagship of Vice-Admiral Sir Doveton Sturdee’s Fourth Battle Squadron. Both survived.

HMS New Zealand fought in the thick of the Jutland battle being part of Vice-Admiral Sir David Beatty’s Battle Cruiser Fleet. She was a British ship donated by the New Zealand Government. On a pre-war visit to the Dominion a Maori chief presented a Maori kilt to the ship with the direction that the captain wear it whenever the ship was in action. The ship’s crew insisted that the captain complied with this requirement. Whenever the ship went into action a member of the crew would look onto the bridge to confirm that the captain was suitably clad so he could reassure the rest of the crew.

Picture of the Battle of Jutland by the German Wartime Marine Artist Claus Bergen. The ships in the foreground are German capital ships. To the left of the picture in the distance HMS Defence can be seen exploding after being repeatedly struck by large calibre German shells.

Information on the Australian personnel from Naval Historical Society of Australia website.