Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

Three: Able Seaman J. W. Lockwood, Royal Navy, who was killed in action in the destroyer H.M.S. Turbulent at Jutland
1915-15 Star (239267, J. W. Lockwood, A.B., R.N.); British War and Victory Medals (239267 J. W. Lockwood. A.B., R.N.), together with named card boxes of issue, Memorial Scroll in the name of ‘Able Seaman John William Lockwood, H.M.S. Turbulent’ and Admiralty campaign medal forwarding letter, extremely fine (3) £240-£280

Spink, September 2001.

John William Lockwood was born in Islington, London on 10 July 1890, and entered the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in August 1907. An Able Seaman in the cruiser H.M.S. Arethusa in the Harwich Force on the outbreak of hostilities in August 1914, he remained likewise employed until she was mined in February 1916. In the interim, she witnessed extensive action in the early engagements in the Heligoland Bight and off the Dogger Bank, being severely damaged by the S.M.S. Frauenlob and Stettin in the former. Having then transferred to the 5th Light Cruiser Squadron, Arethusa captured four German trawlers in September 1915, but her career ended off Felixstowe in February 1916, when she broke her back after striking a mine.
Lockwood was subsequently drafted to the destroyer H.M.S. Turbulent in April 1916, and was in consequence present in her at battle of Jutland on 31 May 1916. As part of the 10th Destroyer Flotilla, in the confused actions of the night of 31 May-1 June, she found herself crossing the head of the German Battle Fleet. She was lit up by searchlights and sunk by the battleship S.M.S. Westfalen at point-blank range, taking with her 96 of her crew, Lockwood among them.
Aged 25, he was the son of John and Louisa Lockwood of 43 Vale Road, Ramsgate, Kent and is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.