Loftus Jones

He kept his last gun firing as his shattered destroyer sank.

Loftus William Jones was born in Hampshire, on 13 November 1879 into a naval family. He entered HMS Britannia in 1894 and served in numerous ships, developing a particular association with destroyers. Promoted commander in 1914, he took charge of HMS Shark later that year after commanding HMS Linnet.

At Jutland on 31 May 1916, Jones led destroyers against German battlecruisers. Shark’s steering and engines were disabled by shellfire. Wounded, Jones rejected assistance that would expose another destroyer to destruction and helped keep his remaining gun in action. After a shell severed his leg, he continued directing the crew, ordered the ensign replaced and finally told the survivors to put on lifebelts. A torpedo struck Shark and she sank.

Jones died in the action. His wife gathered survivors’ accounts in support of recognition, and his posthumous Victoria Cross was announced in March 1917. His body was buried in Sweden and later reinterred at Kviberg Cemetery, Gothenburg.

Official Victoria Cross citation (London Gazette, 6 March 1917):

On the afternoon of the 31st May, 1916, during the action, Commander Jones in H.M.S. "Shark," Torpedo Boat Destroyer, led a division of Destroyers to attack the enemy Battle Cruiser Squadron. In the course of this attack a shell hit the "Shark's" bridge, putting the steering gear out of order, and very shortly afterwards another shell disabled the main engines, leaving the vessel helpless. The Commanding Officer of another Destroyer, seeing the "Shark's" plight, came between her and the enemy and offered assistance, but was warned by Commander Jones not to run the risk of being almost certainly sunk in trying to help him. Commander Jones, though wounded in the leg, went aft to help connect and man the after wheel. Meanwhile the forecastle gun with its crew had been blown away, and the same fate soon afterwards befell the after gun and crew. Commander Jones then went to the midship and only remaining gun, and personally assisted in keeping it in action. All this time the "Shark" was subjected to very heavy fire from enemy light cruisers and destroyers at short range. The gun's crew of the midship gun was reduced to three, of whom an Able Seaman was soon badly wounded in the leg. A few minutes later Commander Jones was hit by a shell, which took off his leg above the knee, but he continued to give orders to his gun's crew, while a Chief Stoker improvised a tourniquet round his thigh. Noticing that the Ensign was not properly hoisted, he gave orders for another to be hoisted. Soon afterwards, seeing that the ship could not survive much longer, and as a German Destroyer was closing, he gave orders for the surviving members of the crew to put on lifebelts. Almost immediately after this order had been given, the "Shark" was struck by a torpedo and sank. Commander Jones was unfortunately not amongst the few survivors from the "Shark," who were picked up by a neutral vessel in the night.