THE BOY!

Camp News, Volume 2, Issue 63, 7 March 1941, Page 2

THE BOY!

It’s the simplest bravest story ever told. ■ ' . I The story of John Travers Cornwell, V.C. —one of the most inspiring stories of the last Great War. We tell it here to-day as an inspiration to the men of New Zealand. 7 Because it expresses better than any other story we know the unquenchable spirit of this island race. Because every man who reads it is better equipped, when the moment comes, to face the fury of the Hun. Where did Cornwell come from, who was he, that he should have had the qualities of greatness ? The answer is that he was an East Ham boy. ' S' * T- * That he was fifteen years of age when he threw up playing in the streets to join the Navy and go down to Devonport. That he spent ten months at a training school. That he was on board the H.M.S. Chester —“Cornwell, boy, Ist. Class” —after only a month at sea, when that cruiser went into action with Jellicoe’s fleet at Jutland Bank on May 31, 1916. Nothing much there in the way of a clue, is there, to show that Jack Cornwell was a hero in the making? No. z The boy was cut in just the same pattern as the million who now stand stemming the invaders. ’ : And how did this sixteen-year-old behave under the gunfire of the German Fleet at Jutland? -■ Let it be said now that few boys will ever know a christening of fire such as Jack Cornwell and the»men of Chester received at Jutland.

7?:; ’ /. ■*'_ S' >/• -J 1 -' v *sS ; The scene and Cornwell’s conduct’ are brilliantly captured in this letter which was written by the Commanding Officer of .the Chester to Mrs. Cornwell: “I know you would wish to hear of the splendid courage and fortitude, shown by your boy. His devotion' to duty was an example for all ’of us. “The wounds which resulted in his death within a short time were received in the first few minutes of the action. t > “He remained steady at his most exposed post at the gun, waiting for orders. ■ “His gun would not bear on the enemy; all but two of the crew were killed or wounded, and he was the only one who was in such an exposed position. “But he felt he might be needed, as indeed he.might have been. ' ■ “So he stayed there, standing and waiting, under heavy fire, with just his own brave heart and God’s help to support him.

“I cannot express to you my admiration of the son you have lost in this world. “I hope to place in the boy’s mess a plate with his name on, and the date, and the words ‘Faithful unto death’ . . .” They took Jack Cornwell back to Grimsby. I In a hospital bed, they told him of the victory. \ But his last wordsperhaps because he was a boy of just sixteen-and-a-half —were of his mother. “I know,” he said to the nurse, “mother,is coming, give her my love.” A humble boy whose epitaph at Manor Park Cemetery, London, E., reads:— “It is not wealth or ancestry but honourable conduct and a noble disposition that make men great.” / . Jack Cornwell bequeathed to Britain the rich heritage she demands for her growing sons. # . That heritage is Example. , There he stood “waiting, under heavy fire, with just his own brave heart, and God’s help to support him.” < We’ll remember those words, each one of us. For the day will come when we will stand where Cornwell stood. We’ll try to remember that though they mangled him, murdered him, he would not give in, “he felt he might be needed.” The young men of Britain are plucking up the torch which the Cornwells of our country have lit. And it flares the brighter to-day for the spirit of the men who hold it.