Victory Medal awarded to Stoker 1st Class J. Ward, Royal Navy who joined for the duration of hostilities on 4th June 1915 and saw service aboard H.M.S. Minotaur from 8th November 1915 until the end of the war, including at the Battle of Jutland, where the ship was the flagship of Rear Admiral Herbert Heath. Minotaur would then go on to serve as part of the Northern Patrol. He would be demobilised ashore on 23rd November 1919.
Victory Medal; (K.26560 J. WARD. STO.1. R.N.)
Condition: Very Fine
James Ward was born in Liverpool, Lancashire on 16th June 1894, giving his trade as a Lift attendant he joined up for the duration of hostilities on 4th June 1915, he would spend the majority of his wartime service aboard the Minotaur Class armoured cruiser H.M.S. Minotaur which he joined on 8th November 1915.
Upon her arrival, Minotaur became flagship of the 7th Cruiser Squadron, under the command of Rear Admiral Arthur Waymouth, based at Cromarty Firth. She received a brief refit in early 1915 and was then assigned to Northern Patrol for the next year. The ship received a QF 12-pounder (three-inch) 12-cwt anti-aircraft (AA) gun and a QF three-pounder (47 mm) AA gun in 1915–16. The 12-pounder gun was mounted on the aft superstructure and the three-pounder on the quarterdeck at the extreme rear. The ship was transferred to the 2nd Cruiser Squadron on 30 May 1916 and participated in the Battle of Jutland on the following day as flagship of Rear Admiral Herbert Heath. She remained unengaged throughout the battle and did not fire her 9.2 or 7.5-inch guns at all during the battle. Minotaur was also present during the attempted interception of the High Seas Fleet by the Grand Fleet on 19 August although no combat occurred. For the rest of the war, the ship was assigned to the Northern Patrol. On 11 December 1917, together with her sister Shannon and four destroyers, she was assigned to patrol the convoy route between Lerwick and Norway, but the Germans successfully destroyed a convoy off the Norwegian coast on the following day and returned home without being spotted. The British ships were only able to rescue survivors and escort the sole surviving ship from the convoy, the crippled destroyer Pellew, back to Scapa Flow.
In 1917–18 the 12-pounder AA gun mounted on the aft superstructure was moved to the roof of the forward 9.2-inch gun turret and a fire-control system was installed with a director mounted on a platform fitted to the foremast. Minotaur was paid off on 5 February 1919.
Ward was demobilised on 3rd March 1919, and then finally demobilised ashore on 23rd November 1919.