Mindehøjtidelighed

Gæster:

Family British admiral sir John Jellicoe: George og Eliot Latham - Emma og Colin Heber-Percy - Richard og Virginia Latham - Edward Wingfield - Henry Nurton

Family German admiral Reinhard Scheer: Reinhard Scheer-Hennings

Gert Nordmann Andersen  og  Søren Gade og Jens Lønberg Pedersen

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Speech for 110^th anniversary of Battle of Jutland Thyborron 31^st May 2026 by Richard Latham

 Nick Jellicoe has represented the Jellicoe family at all the previous Thyborron commemorations  of The Battle of Jutland but this year for the 110^th anniversary  two other grandchildren of the Admiral – myself and Emma , two great grand children -George and Edward  and two great, great grandchildren -Eliot and Henry have that honour.

(Emma Jellicoe’s husband Colin is also in our party and has a personal interest in Thyborron  of which you should be aware.His great , great Uncle – Lieutenant Algernon Percy RN – always known as Bobby was one of a small number who survived the explosion of HMS QUEEN MARY’s magazines during the Battle. He found himself uninjured with a lifejacket near to a seaman who was both injured and without . Gallantly He gave the man his jacket who was picked up and survived . Lt Percy was not and his body was recovered later in Norway There are probably many such stories of self sacrifice and gallantry behind the statistic of 8,465 lives lost in the Battle.)

My son George visited here last year but this is my first visit . The Jutland Memorial Park has been so imaginatively conceived by Gert Normann Anderson and his colleagues to commemorate the tragedy of the loss of those who did not survive the Battle .

Ten years ago Nicky Jellicoe and I travelled to Wilhelmshaven to take part in the very moving Commemorations of the Centenary of the battle  held there.

It is perhaps not well known  that the tragedy of lives lost was compounded by the  fact that many of those who fought each other 110 years ago at Jutland knew each other well . The rivalry between the Imperial German Navy and the Royal Navy led to intense competition in sailing and other sporting events not only at Cowes and Kiel but across the world  when  the Fleets met each other before war broke out .

Many had also fought together against a common foe in the multinational column assembled from the navies stationed off the trading ports of eastern China and sent to Peking on land in 1900 to put down the Boxer Rebellion. My grandfather -then Captain John Jellicoe -commanded this column which endured considerable hardships.

On one occasion ,when food ran short , John Jellicoe shared a boiled egg with Max Shulz - a senior officer in the German contingent which was the second largest in the column.

The next occasion on which they met was when Max lead the Destroyer attack by the High Ses Fleet on the Grand Fleet at Jutland. He was killed during this attack.

Nick and I in memory of their friendship laid a wreath from the Jellicoe Family on his grave at Wilhelmshaven in 2016.

For the commemoration at sea of the centenary of the battle  I also had the  honour  to represent my Grandfather on board HMS Duncan  in Company with HMS Iron Duke ,FGS Brandenberg and other NATO Warships over the site of the battle in the presence of the Fleet commanders of both the Royal and German navies.. Royal Naval sailors scattered poppy petals from their caps into the ship’s wake as German ratings scattered forget-me- not flowers from theirs- lined up alternately side by side and remembering together the men who lost their lives that day .

Nick and I and the Von Reuter family also took part in the ceremonies to commemorate the centenary of the Scuttling of the High Seas fleet in Scapa Flow in 2019 and I remember well the spirit of the German families there  and the sense of shared reconciliation .

So  we stand here today – whether British , Danish or German – not celebrating victory or defeat  so much as the valour of our countrymen , their professional zeal and the poignancy of the day which brought men who trusted each other as friends to fight each other  in the spirit of professional Naval rivals whose common cause was to manage the perils of the Sea as well as their duty to their countries.

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Remembering A.W.P at the Jutland Memorial Park May 31st 2026 by Colin Heber-Percy

Hanging in the dining room of my parents’ house is a picture of a boy. He’s perhaps 7 or eight 8 old. Bobby, as he was known, was my father’s great uncle, but my father never knew him. Bobby was killed, aged 31, at the Battle of Jutland.

Bobby was serving as a sub-lieutenant on HMS Queen Mary, a fast and lightly-armoured battlecruiser. On the morning of May 31^st 1916, the British battlecruisers bore the brunt of the German shelling. Built for speed and manoeuvrability, the battlecruisers’ light armour made them particularly vulnerable. Taking a direct hit to its magazine, the Queen Mary exploded, split in two, and sank in seconds.

Bobby survived the explosion, and found himself in the water, relatively uninjured. He had even managed to grab a life jacket. Hours later, survivors from the Queen Mary were picked up by a German destroyer. Bobby was not among them.

One survivor wrote to Bobby’s father from a German prisoner-of-war camp to say how they had become desperately cold in the water and were almost overcome by the thick clouds of oil fumes. Bobby had offered this man his life jacket, ‘for which action I shall never forget him, although I had only known him a few days’.

Just 18 of HMS Queen Mary’s crew of 1,264 men lived. A friend later described Bobby as the ‘soul of honour and chivalry’. Bobby’s body, along with many others, was washed up near Fredrikstad in Norway. An English lady living nearby attended a military funeral on 28^th June and she wrote:

“Another English lady and myself were the only ones of their own present, and as we stood by the graves we felt we were representing the mothers and wives of the brave men whose bodies we committed to the dust….

“All the coffins were covered with the most beautiful wreaths and flowers brought by all kinds of people. Wasn’t it kind? All the bodies had lifebelts on but no discs with their names…. One officer had a ring with the initials A.W.P. and a crest engraved on his gold cuff buttons…. How I wished their friends could have known that the dear remains were laid carefully and kindly in consecrated soil, it would be a little comfort to their sore hearts.”

Her mention of the ring made it possible for the family to identify Bobby, whose full name was Algernon William Percy. And the ring was returned to them.

On the centenary of the Battle of Jutland in 2016, my son Joseph, Bobby’s great-great-great nephew, was wearing that ring on a chain around his neck when he read those famous lines from Binyon’s poem at the Service of Commemoration:

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: 
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

And today, I’m able to remember Bobby, along with all the fallen, on this anniversary of the battle. I’d like to thank Gert Andersen and the late Paul M. Cederdorff for their extraordinary gift to the world, this deeply moving Memorial Park. It means so much to so many. Thanks to them, we are able – as I am today – to honour the memory of all those who lost their lives 110 years ago. We remember them.

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Tale af Lemvig Kommunes Borgmester Jens Lønberg Pedersen,

ved 110-året for Jyllandsslaget og 10-års jubilæet for Mindeparken

Kære alle sammen

Tak fordi jeg må være med i dag.

Vi markerer 110-året for Jyllandsslaget
og 10 år med Mindeparken.

Det er en dag, der giver anledning til at stoppe op et øjeblik.

Vi står her ved vores kyst.
Et sted, som mange af os kender godt.

Og alligevel er det voldsomt at tænke på,
hvad der fandt sted lige herude for 110 år siden.

Næsten 10.000 liv gik tabt og tæt på 200.000 tons stål endte på havets bund.

Lige herude.

Det er ikke noget, man går og tænker på til hverdag, når vi ser ud over det store hav.
Men det sætter alligevel tingene lidt i perspektiv.

I dag handler det ikke om at gennemgå historien.
Den kender mange af jer allerede.

Det handler om at mindes dem, der var en del af det.
De mange søfolk, som ikke kom hjem, det har været et ubærlige savn i de små engelske og tyske hjem.

Mindeparken giver os et sted at gøre det.
Et sted, hvor man kan være stille et øjeblik
og tænke over det, der skete.

Historien må vi ikke glemme, den har betydning – også i dag.

Som borgmester i Lemvig Kommune er jeg taknemmelig for,
at vi har sådan et sted her i vores område.

Det giver os mulighed for at holde fast i historien.
Og for at give den videre.

Sea War Museum spiller også en vigtig rolle i den sammenhæng.

Det er med til at fortælle historien på en måde,
som gør den nærværende – både for os, der bor her,
og for dem, der kommer udefra.

Det er med til at sætte vores område på landkortet
på en måde, der giver mening også selvom det er dystre minder.

Ikke kun som et sted med flot natur,
men også som et sted med en historie,
der rækker langt ud over vores egen kommune.

Derfor betyder det også noget,
at vi kan samles her i dag.

Og jeg vil gerne byde velkommen til jer, der er kommet fra Tyskland og England.

Det er godt, at vi kan være her sammen og markere dagen.

Til sidst vil jeg sige tak til dem, der har stået for arrangementet.

Og tak fordi jeg måtte være med.

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