Great War Jutland veteran’s British War Medal and Royal Fleet Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal pair awarded to Able Seaman G.W. Matthews, Royal Navy, later Royal Fleet Reserve who would see his early Great War service aboard HMS Ajax, and was later present at the Battle of Jutland serving aboard HMS Revenge. His post-war service would include time aboard the submarines M3 and K14. Being shore pensioned on 17th May 1926 and was awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 11th July 1929.
Pair: British War Medal 1914-1919; (J.21026 G.W. MATTHEWS. A.B. R.N.) Royal Fleet Reserve Long Service and Good Conduct Medal, GVR, (J.21026 (P.O.B. 16227) G.W. MATTHEWS. A.B. R.F.R.)
Condition: Good Very Fine
George William Matthews was born in Mile End, London and joined the Royal Navy on 11th October 1912 initially serving as a Boy 2nd Class with Impregnable, before being advanced to Boy 1st Class on 27th May 1913. He would then join Theseus from 28th May 1913 until 4th October 1913, and then Vivid I from 5th October 1913 until 29th October 1913 when he joined Ajax, being appointed an Ordinary Seaman on 16th January 1914 and then being advanced to Able Seaman on 29th May 1915, remaining aboard until transferring back to Vivid I on 24th September 1915. During his time aboard Ajax he would have taken part in the largely unsuccessful attempt to intercept the German ships that had bombarded the ports of Scarborough, Hartlepool and Whitby.
He would join Revenge upon its commissioning on 1st February 1916, subsequently serving aboard her until 31st December 1917, and would be present at the Battle of Jutland
In an attempt to lure out and destroy a portion of the Grand Fleet, the German High Seas Fleet with 16 dreadnoughts, six pre-dreadnoughts, six light cruisers and 31 torpedo boats commanded by Vice Admiral Reinhard Scheer, departed Jade Bight early on the morning of 31 May. The fleet sailed in concert with Rear Admiral Franz von Hipper's five battlecruisers and supporting cruisers and torpedo boats. The Royal Navy's Room 40 had intercepted and decrypted German radio traffic containing plans of the operation. The Admiralty ordered the Grand Fleet of 28 dreadnoughts and 9 battlecruisers, to sortie the night before to cut off and destroy the High Seas Fleet. On the day of the battle, Revenge and the rest of the 6th Division, 1st BS were stationed toward the rear of the British line.
The initial action was fought primarily by the British and German battlecruiser formations in the afternoon, but by 18:00, the Grand Fleet approached the scene. Fifteen minutes later, Jellicoe gave the order to turn and deploy the fleet for action. The transition from their cruising formation caused congestion with the rear divisions, forcing Revenge and many of the other ships to reduce speed to 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) to avoid colliding with each other. The German fleet quickly came into range and many British ships began to engage them starting at 18:17. The British ships initially had poor visibility and Revenge waited several minutes before opening fire at 18:22; her target during this period is unclear, and she may have engaged the crippled cruiser SMS Wiesbaden, the German battle line, or both. She fired intermittently for seventeen minutes and made no hits in the haze.
At 19:09, Revenge was forced to turn away to avoid a torpedo that was probably launched by the torpedo boat V48; the torpedo passed harmlessly in her wake. Shortly thereafter, she engaged the battlecruiser Derfflinger; her first salvo estimated the range to be 11,000 yards (10,000 m), but overshot the target. Revenge's gunlayers quickly brought the range down to 10,200 yards (9,300 m) and straddled Derfflinger with their second salvo. With the range found, Revenge quickly scored five hits before shifting fire to the battlecruiser Von der Tann, since other battleships were concentrating their fire on Derfflinger. Two of her hits on Derfflinger disabled her aft turrets; the other three caused less significant damage, with one of them passing through a funnel without exploding. Revenge hit Von der Tann once near her aft conning tower at 19:19, doing minor damage; she also fired a torpedo at the ship during this period that failed to hit.
Revenge had to turn away again at 19:35 to avoid a pair of torpedoes; she and the other members of the division turned again at 19:42 after reports of a submarine, which proved to be imaginary. Revenge saw no further contact with German forces, in large part due to torpedo damage incurred by the squadron flagship, Marlborough, that forced the ship to slow significantly. At 01:56 on 1 June, Vice-Admiral Cecil Burney, the squadron commander aboard Marlborough, informed Revenge that the damage would force him to transfer to Revenge to allow Marlborough to return to port. He boarded the light cruiser HMS Fearless, which carried him to Revenge shortly after 03:00. By 10:00, the 6th Division ships were still 45 nautical miles (83 km; 52 mi) to the north of the rest of the fleet. Revenge and the other two ships finally rejoined the fleet at 19:25 on the way back to Scapa Flow.
In the course of the battle, Revenge had fired 102 rounds from her main battery, all of which were of the armour-piercing, capped variety. She also fired 87 rounds from her secondary guns. She was not hit by any fire during the engagement.
After the action of 19 August 1916, in which the Grand Fleet had lost two light cruisers to German U-boat attacks, Admiral John Jellicoe, the fleet commander, decided that the fleet should not be risked in such sorties unless the High Seas Fleet ventured north or the strategic situation warranted the risk. For its part, the German fleet remained in port or trained in the Baltic Sea through 1917, as both sides had largely abandoned the idea of a decisive surface battle in the North Sea. Both sides turned to positional warfare, laying fields of naval mines, and Germany resumed the unrestricted submarine warfare campaign early in the year. As a result, Revenge and the rest of the Grand Fleet saw no action during the last two years of the war.
In 1917, Britain began running regular convoys to Norway, escorted by light forces; the Germans raided these convoys twice late in the year, prompting Admiral David Beatty, who had replaced Jellicoe the previous year, to send battle squadrons of the Grand Fleet to escort the convoys. The High Seas Fleet went to sea on 23 April to attack one of the escorted convoys, but after the battlecruiser SMS Moltke suffered a serious mechanical accident the next day, the Germans were forced to break off the operation. Revenge and the rest of the Grand Fleet sortied on 24 April once they intercepted wireless signals from the damaged Moltke, but the Germans were too far ahead of the British, and no shots were fired.
Having left Revenge, he would serve ashore with Vivid I from 1st January 1918 until the 11th November 1918 the day of the armistice. He would subsequently serve aboard Wolfhound on 12th November 1918 until 25th November 1919 with Vivid I from 26th November 1919 until 27th April 1920. Rowena from 28th April 1920 until 7th March 1922, Vivid I from 8th March to 13th September 1922, Dolphin from 14th September 1922 until 3rd May 1923.
He would then serve aboard the Submarine M3 from 4th May 1923 until 20th November 1924, and then being Spare crew at Cyclops from 21st November 1924 until 27th June 1925, He would then serve aboard the Submarine K14 from 29th June 1925 until 12th November 1925. He was then based at Dolphin as Spare Crew from 13th November 1925 until 17th May 1926 when he was pensioned ashore.
He would subsequently join the Royal Fleet Reserve and would be awarded the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal on 11th July 1929 as an Able Seaman.
Additionally entitled to a 1914-1915 Star and Victory Medal.
