Royal Navy sailors and veterans have marked the centenary of the biggest naval engagement of World War One with a parade and ceremony in Portsmouth.
More than 1,800 sailors based in the city were among the 8,648 who died during the Battle of Jutland. The battle was fought near the coast of Denmark on 31 May and 1 June 1916 and involved about 250 ships.
To mark the event the Royal Marines Band led a parade from Collingwood to Southsea Common’s Royal Navy memorial.
Keith Simpson MP, commissioner of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, said the event commemorated the “courage and comradeship” of those who served at the Battle of Jutland.
Wreaths were laid during the service led by HMS Collingwood chaplain, the Reverend Martin Evans.
Event organiser Commander Andy Green, said: “The large turnout at the ceremony was made all the more poignant because out of the 6,000 officers and men who lost their lives at Jutland, a great majority were attached to Portsmouth.”
The only major sea battle of World War One, the Battle of Jutland saw the Royal Navy’s Grand Fleet, based at Scapa Flow in Orkney, clash with the German High Seas Fleet.
Most of those killed were lost at sea and have no grave – their names are inscribed on three memorials in Portsmouth, Plymouth and Chatham.
At the end of the engagement, the British had lost more in terms of ships and men, but it later emerged the Germans had concealed the scuttling of two of their ships, and it soon became seen as a strategic victory for the Royal Navy.
