Victory Medal awarded to Lanced Corporal H. Jacobs, Portsmouth Division, Royal Marine Light Infantry. From Wootten Bassett near to Swindon, Wiltshire, he saw regular service from May 1899 though to May 1911 when he went to live in Pontardawe, Glamorgan, Wales. As a reservist he was mobilised on the outbreak of the Great War and is confirmed as having been aboard the armed merchant cruiser Aquitania when she collided with a liner named Canadian on 22 August 1914, and was then aboard the cruiser Kent when she sank the German light cruiser Nurnberg at the Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914 and several months in the Battle of Mas a Tierra on 14 March 1915, she forced the light cruiser Dresden to scuttle herself.
Victory Medal; (PO.10344 L.CPL. H. JACOBS. R.M.L.I.)
Condition: Very Fine.
Henry Jacobs was born on 7 April 1881 in Wootten Bassett near to Swindon, Wiltshire, and having worked as a factory labourer, then enlisted into the Royal Marine Light Infantry at Bristol on 26 May 1899, and joining as a Private (No.10344) the Portsmouth Division. After passing through the Recruit Depot at Deal he joined “C” Company at Portsmouth on 23 February 1900 and first saw service afloat aboard the cruiser Ariadne during July and August 1900. He then saw service aboard the cruiser Porpoise from September 1900 to January 1901, when having taken passage out to the Australia Station, he was posted to the cruiser Katoomba on 1 January 1901, this being the flagship of the Auxiliary Squadron of the Australia Station. Jacobs transferred to the cruiser Wallaroo in October 1902, but was back with Katoomba in the following month, and then joined the gunboat Sparrow on 29 January 1903, before joining the cruiser Wallaroo again in the following month, and the cruiser Diadem in December 1903, and saw service on the China Station until posted back to Portsmouth in March 1904.
During 1908 Jacobs saw service aboard both Majestic and Agamemnon and was aboard Bulwark during 1908 to 1910, and after service with Euryalus in 1910 to 1911 was discharged on the termination of 12 years service on 27 May 1911, going to live in Pontardawe, Glamorgan, Wales, he having also enrolled into the Royal Fleet Reserve. He then attended annual training through to the outbreak of the war, who he was mobilised as a Private with “A” Company of the Plymouth Division on 2 August 1914.
Jacobs was posted aboard the Cunard liner and Admiralty requisitioned armed merchant cruiser Aquitania on 7 August. On 8 August, having been rid of decorative elements and armed with guns, she was sent on patrol. On 22 August, she collided with a liner named Canadian. Shortly after, the Admiralty found that large liners were too expensive to operate as cruisers. On 30 September, she was repaired, disarmed, and returned to Cunard Line. In the meantime, Jacobs had been posted back to the Portsmouth Division on 8 September, He was nee posted aboard the cruiser Kent from 3 October 1914. Kent was ordered south to join Cradock's squadron searching for the East Asia Squadron, however, was diverted en route to hunt for the German light cruiser Karlsruhe in the Cape Verde - Canary Islands ares. When the news of the disastrous Battle of Coronel reached the Admiralty in early November, Kent was at Freetown, Sierra Leone, and she immediately sailed south. At the subsequent Battle of the Falkland Islands on 8 December 1914, Kent sank the German light cruiser Nurnberg. Several months later she discovered the sole surviving German ship from that battle and forced the light cruiser Dresden to scuttle herself in the Battle of Mas a Tierra on 14 March 1915.. She was assigned . to patrol the South American coast for the rest of 1915, but was transferred to the Cape Station in early 1916 to begin convoy escort duties along the West African coast until mid-1918 when she returned to the China Station.
Jacobs spent the rest of the war with Kent and was demobilised at the end of hostilities, having been awarded the Royal Navy Long Service and Good Conduct Medal in December 1917, he is also entitled to the 1914-15 Star and the British War Medal.
